What Font Should I Choose for My Thesis?
The academic font of your thesis text is as important as the content itself. It is concluded and approved by your supervisor and reading committee. It means that it is time for your thesis to be set out! All your readers are from your reading committee and their acceptance weighs more than anything else. The font style is one of the critical elements of a successful thesis. What font should I choose for my thesis? We’ll teach you a few tricks & tips in this post!
Best Fonts for Academic Papers
First of all, you have to keep in mind your thesis’s general appearance when selecting a font type. Times New Roman 12 was the default in the previous versions of Microsoft Word between the early 90s to the end of January 2007. After Calibri replaced it as the new default with Word 2007, there were many reasons to still use Times New Roman: many people were still using older versions of MS Word; people print or update existing documents, which were created with the previous default fonts. So, I always prefer Times New Roman, or I go out of the way to use it because I find it familiar.
But why was it preferred in the first place? Times New Roman was one of the first scalable fonts for research papers (Arial and Courier New). It played an equal part on the Macintosh with the nearly identical Times Roman.
For a decade ago, primarily computers relied upon built-in printers’ fonts. Those printers generally had some version of Times built-in, as well. Both Hewlett Packard and Adobe made decisions about printer fonts in the early to mid-80s, including some Times version among their most basic three text typefaces (along with some version of Helvetica and some version of Courier).
HP had been first, in 1982, with their first LaserJet. Back in 1982, the printer fonts weren’t even scalable, and they came in specific sizes. There were a limited number of particular measures, and 12 points was a reasonable general-purpose option from among those sizes.
Time New Roman is the Standard Font for Research Papers
The majority of your teachers have irretrievably treasured the ‘Times New Roman font when you type any academic assignment. They sure have a good reason to like it.
It was initially premeditated for the London Times newspaper. It is perfect for following a formal style, and many educational institutions prescribe this font to write various kinds of academic papers, counting thesis, research, or essay papers. It doesn’t end here. Times New Roman is also your safest writing font for scientific papers as it poses less risk of offending your evaluators and supervisors due to its formal written presentation style. It’s also simple and readable on the computer or laptop screen, making it an excellent preference.
But Times New Roman does have a few disadvantages too, that must be well-thought-out, considering all its positive aspects. The style of the thesis font, as sophisticated and formal, can sometimes be a discomfort to read. In Times New Roman, the text is jam-packed, which can significantly reduce readability. If your instructor has a preference to give in to a copy of your thesis in an academic font that is legible, you should be clear of this and other serif fonts.
There is a threat of further glitches with sans serif fonts as well. It doesn’t mean they are perfect in print due to their relatively lighter design. Moreover, if you have the plan to write specific parts of your thesis in italics style, then sans-serif fonts can create issues. In sans serif fonts, italics represent the letters in slanted style as compared to being italicized genuinely as they need to be.
Guidelines That Can Help You Pick the Font for Thesis
The choice of a particular font type is very personal and depends entirely on your preference or university’s requirements. We have a few last points that will help you find the best fonts for your thesis.
If you use Calibri for the body of your text content, it might appeal to the readers, given that it is MS Office’s default font type. The same applies to other fonts without series, though for headings, you may use them. Most experts believe that it is easier to read serif fonts when the text is too long and is broken into more significant parts. Moreover, even if you are granted the right to pick the font type of a thesis, it still doesn’t anticipate you going far too far from traditional fonts.
Keep an eye on how many variants the type of font has? Most fonts have many variations, such as Palatino, Garamond, Schoolbook, Constantia, Century, Minion Pro, Georgia, Cambria, etc. For your research paper, you should make sure that you choose one whose numbers are neatly aligned. Some of these fonts (like Constantia and Georgia) use numerals that are not aligned, which means that the digits may appear below or above the baseline text. While this looks good in text content, tables and other related illustrations and figures can show way too many muddles.
Errors to be Avoided When Choosing the Best Font for Research Paper
Don’t choose fonts based on your likes and dislikes. The writer should always bear in mind that the academic fonts should be selected from the reader’s viewpoint since a 20-page thesis with a complex font is not easy to undertake.
It is easier for the tutor’s eyes to skim through the text without complications with the use of different fonts. The perfect way to render striking and eye-contracting fonts is to run a Sans Serif with its body text. Some fairly famous combinations include – Helvetica with Garamond, Arial Narrow with Times New Roman, and so forth.
If the write-ups are too complex and are not well structured, always avoid using too many fonts.
All fonts do not match or work together, so students should make sure that they choose fonts that go along with their writing.
Try separating your subtitles’ fonts and the paragraphs as the same fonts for academic papers are used to make your writing tedious and uninteresting for the reader.
Concluding Remarks:
As we know that, Time New Roman 12 is the standard font some universities use in thesis guidelines. Apart from Time New Roman, I contained the headings for Calibri with Constantia’s body text. Since these examples have been made as screenshots, you can better see how fonts look when you try them on your machine and printer to make your own choice for the best font for academic papers.