What are the best reading fonts?

Question

18

Options
Considered

33

User
Recs.

Oct 4, 2023

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

17 Options Considered

Best reading fonts	Price	License	Italics
-- ArrowType Shantell Sans	Free	OFL-1.1	Yes
-- OpenDyslexic	Free	OFL-1.1	Yes
-- SIL Gentium Plus	Free	OFL-1.1	Yes
-- Cardo	Free	OFL-1.1	Yes
-- JuliaMono	Free	OFL-1.1	Yes

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score 1 · Answer 1

ArrowType Shantell Sans

Weights:6 (Light, Regular, Medium, Semibold, Bold, Extrabold)

Alternative:Microsoft Comic Sans, K-Type Lexie Readable, Sassoon-Williams Primary

score 1 · Answer 2

OpenDyslexic

Weights:2 (Regular, Bold)

score 1 · Answer 3

SIL Gentium Plus

Top Pro

Customizable

Specs

License:OFL-1.1

Italics:Yes

Weights:2 (Regular, Bold)

Customize:https://scripts.sil.org/ttw/fonts2go.cgi

score 1 · Answer 4

Cardo

Weights:2 (Regular, Bold)

Alternative:https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/fbb

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score 1 · Answer 5

JuliaMono

Top Pro

Has a large number of useful glyphs

Specs

License:OFL-1.1

Italics:Yes

Weights:7 (Light, Regular, Medium, Semibold, Bold, Extrabold, Black)

Zero Style:Dot

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score 8 · Answer 6

Microsoft Verdana

Top Pro

Looks absolutely gorgeous in Windows

Looks good elsewhere as well, but the world-class hinting here really comes out with the windows rasterizer (probably optimized for it). See More

Sidiculous's Experience

The most elegant yet simple choices were Verdana and Tahoma. For some reason, I can't stand Times New Roman. Always hated it. See More

Specs

License:Proprietary

Top Pro

Compact while light

Packs lots of information into your screen space while remaining clear and never looking crowded. See More

David Eltz's Experience

Verdana is designed for readability, and a viable option for primary system fonts. Studies by the Software Usability and Research Laboratory found it to be the best font overall and among the most legible. See More

Top Pro

Free with Windows

Top Pro

Renders perfectly at all sizes

Again, particularly in Windows. See More

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score 1 · Answer 7

Atkinson Hyperlegible

Top Pro

Slash zero

Specs

License:OFL-1.1

Italics:Yes

Weights:2 (Regular, Bold)

Alternative:https://brailleinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/atkinson-hyperlegible-font/Atkinson-Hyperlegible-Font-Print-and-Web-2020-0514.zip

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score 1 · Answer 8

Bigelow & Holmes Go Sans

Top Pro

Open aperture a and e

Better legibility, bitmap gridfit, and print. See More

Specs

License:BSD-3-Clause

Italics:Yes

Weights:3 (Regular, Medium, Bold)

Alternative:https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/gofonts

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score 1 · Answer 9

Bigelow & Holmes Go Mono

Top Pro

A technical Mono, with serifs

It has a distinct "0" (zero). A complementary aesthetic typeface to TeX Gyre Schola (based on ATF Century Schoolbook), that has Greek, and Math Symbols (only from CTAN), for technical text blocks that have biology, computer programming code, chemistry, or math subjects. See More

Specs

License:BSD-3-Clause

Italics:Yes

Weights:2 (Regular, Bold)

Alternative:Verily Serif Mono, https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/gofonts

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score 1 · Answer 10

Finlandica

Top Pro

Open aperture a and e

Better legibility, bitmap gridfit, and print. See More

Specs

License:OFL-1.1

Italics:Yes

Weights:4 (Regular, Medium, Semibold, Bold)

Zero Style:Dot

score 1 · Answer 11

Liberation

Top Pro

Metric-compatible with Arial, Courier New, Times New Roman

Specs

License:OFL-1.1

Italics:Yes

Weights:2 (Regular, Bold)

Metric-compatible:Monotype Arial, Monotype Courier New, Monotype Times New Roman

score 1 · Answer 12

Bitstream DejaVu Sans

Top Pro

Bitstream DejaVu Sans is an alternative to Microsoft Verdana

Specs

License:Bitstream-Vera

Italics:Yes

Weights:2 (Regular, Bold)

Alternative:Barnbrook Virus DejaVu, https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/dejavu

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score 1 · Answer 13

Merriweather

Weights:4 (Light, Regular, Bold, Black)

Alternative:https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/merriweather

score 1 · Answer 14

TT Literata

Weights:6 (Light, Regular, Medium, Semibold, Bold, Extrabold)

Notes:7pt = Caption, 12pt = Text, 36pt = Subhead, 72pt = Display

score 1 · Answer 15

SIL Charis

Top Pro

Customizable

Steve Perkins: "A notorious issue with this font is that its Line Spacing is extremely large compared to Charter and Georgia or other similar fonts... 1 – Go to their TypeTuner web page. 2 – Select Charis, then adjust the "Line Spacing" option at the bottom to "Tight." 3 – Enter a suffix (e.g. "LS-Tight") that will be appended to the font filenames." See More

Specs

License:OFL-1.1

Italics:Yes

Weights:2 (Regular, Bold)

Based On:Bitstream Charter

See All Specs

score 2 · Answer 16

Dalton Maag Bookerly

Top Pro

Superb aesthetics

Long try's Experience

It comes as default with Kindle. It's awesome! See More

Specs

License:Proprietary

Italics:Yes

Weights:2 (Regular, Bold)

See All

score 4 · Answer 17

Microsoft Candara

17 Options Considered

My Recommendation for ArrowType Shantell Sans

My Recommendation for ArrowType Shantell Sans

My Recommendation for OpenDyslexic

My Recommendation for OpenDyslexic

My Recommendation for SIL Gentium Plus

My Recommendation for SIL Gentium Plus

Customizable

My Recommendation for Cardo

My Recommendation for Cardo

My Recommendation for JuliaMono

My Recommendation for JuliaMono

Has a large number of useful glyphs

My Recommendation for Microsoft Verdana

My Recommendation for Microsoft Verdana

Looks absolutely gorgeous in Windows

Compact while light

Free with Windows

Renders perfectly at all sizes

My Recommendation for Atkinson Hyperlegible

My Recommendation for Atkinson Hyperlegible

Slash zero

My Recommendation for Bigelow & Holmes Go Sans

My Recommendation for Bigelow & Holmes Go Sans

Open aperture a and e

My Recommendation for Bigelow & Holmes Go Mono

My Recommendation for Bigelow & Holmes Go Mono

A technical Mono, with serifs

My Recommendation for Finlandica

My Recommendation for Finlandica

Open aperture a and e

My Recommendation for Liberation

My Recommendation for Liberation

Metric-compatible with Arial, Courier New, Times New Roman

My Recommendation for Bitstream DejaVu Sans

My Recommendation for Bitstream DejaVu Sans

Bitstream DejaVu Sans is an alternative to Microsoft Verdana

My Recommendation for Merriweather

My Recommendation for Merriweather

My Recommendation for TT Literata

My Recommendation for TT Literata

My Recommendation for SIL Charis

My Recommendation for SIL Charis

Customizable

My Recommendation for Dalton Maag Bookerly

My Recommendation for Dalton Maag Bookerly

Superb aesthetics

My Recommendation for Microsoft Candara

My Recommendation for Microsoft Candara

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My Recommendation for Consolas 8.1

My Recommendation for Consolas 8.1

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