What is the best font and point size to use?

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Level 1

3 points

What is the best font and point size to use?

I'm putting together a text-only book (a novel I wrote) and was wondering, what is the best font and point size to use? I'm using Times New Roman and 16 pt. size and when I look at it in Preview the letters still look really small. I also noticed in Preview, up at the very top on the toolbar where the icon for the Table of Contents is, it says: "Book Title". Is that correct or should the actual name/title of my book be there? Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Lyle

Pages-OTHER

Posted on Feb 11, 2015 7:35 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

sb0117

Level 3

556 points

Feb 13, 2015 8:49 AM in response to Soma Dude

There is no ideal sizer for fonts. It really depends on your content. If you are putting a text-only book, you may want to consider using Pages and export the file as an EPub and let the reader choose the font size and style that works for them. iBooks created with IBA cannot have their font changed by the reader.

As for the "book title" question, you need to change that in the page and chapter listing on the left-hand side area IBA.

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Answer 2

Sep 26, 2017 7:15 PM in response to Soma Dude

a person will be able to change font sizes automatically in their e pub reader - as i understand it, the page is HTML - the same as a webpage and how it appears depends on the way a person sets up their browser or epub reader - if you choose fixed format - you can set the reader to read it the way you wish - but it limits options for readers. I hope that helps.

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Answer 3

sb0117

Level 3

556 points

Feb 18, 2015 6:14 AM in response to Soma Dude

IBA lets you import epub files, but they will be saved as ibooks when you export them for publishing. If having the reader choose their own text size is important, then epub is the only way to go since ibooks have fixed-layout design and users can't change the text size.

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Answer 4

Soma Dude Author

Level 1

3 points

Feb 14, 2015 8:16 AM in response to sb0117

Thank you so much, I fixed the book title problem. And I've been experimenting with exporting as an ePub (and I am using Pages too) but the chapters are all jumbled up, chapter two starts in the middle of some text from chapter one, chapter eight is chapter nine (in my Pages file I wrote at the start of each chapter Chapter One, Chapter Two, etc.). Am I not formatting the Pages file properly?

And should I single or double-space the Pages file?

Thanks again, your help is greatly appreciated.

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Answer 5

Soma Dude Author

Level 1

3 points

Feb 16, 2015 7:49 PM in response to Soma Dude

Hi again. I was a little confused in my reply to you two days ago where I mentioned I was experimenting with exporting as an EPub. What I realized today is that I opened the EPub in IBA, made some edits and then saved it as a .iba file. So, dumb question but I assume you can't edit an EPub in IBA?

This is my first time creating a book (and it will be text only) for iBooks. Do you suggest I use an EPub or IBA? I certainly want the reader to be able to choose their own font size and style like you mentioned in your reply. I noticed when I opened my IBA book in iBooks Preview I could not even zoom in on the text. Thanks.

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Answer 6

Soma Dude Author

Level 1

3 points

Feb 18, 2015 7:42 PM in response to sb0117

Ok great, thanks, much appreciated!

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