I did a brief search through the forum for font but it doesn't seem like this has been discussed in relation to theses before - what did you all use as your font? I'm on Arial at the moment (I'm a 1980s child) but I don't think my university specifies which one it has to be in, just so long as it's clear. I confess I have also recently read "Just My Type"!

So I'm curious, what font are you on? And what do you think it says about you?

======= Date Modified 04 Apr 2012 15:42:57 =======
imo I would go with Times New Roman. I know things are changing but 'in general', tmr is the default academic font. The majority (I won't say all in case somebody contradicts me) of journals are in Times. In my uni, the submission guidelines, along with my own department's guidelines stipulated Times.

I also use Times New Roman, but then I am probably a decade older (1970s child)!! It seems as though things are changing though......

1960s child :$, birthday today, I think I am 'officially' middle-aged :-(x100000000000000000000000000000000000

Happy birthday Ady!!!

I am an 80s child too, and my thesis is in Arial. As far as I can remember, my uni stated it had to be 'in a readable font, such as Arial or Times New Roman, no smaller than size 11 or 12', or something along those lines. I went for Arial because I find TNR a bit old-fashioned (no offence intended to anyone who used it!) and somehow Arial just looks a bit more modern. Also, the template I used for my headings and things used a more modern font (can't remember which now, v similar to Arial but not exactly) so I wanted them to look as close as possible.

I used Times (size 12) because the university seemed to recommend it. More generally, the topic or audience plays a part in the font I use.

Happy birthday Ady! Have a great day...

I'm not declaring the decade I was born but some years have passed since I was a child:$

Just to spice things up a bit, I went a bit crazy and used NEITHER times new roman nor Arial....I opted for Calibri, size 12 :)

Happy birthday Ady!

Ah happy birthday Ady! (gift)

That's interesting, I was playing around with a few fonts this afternoon and it's amazing the impact the font has on how you perceive the text. I agree that Times probably looks more authoritarian, though I like the roundness of Arial! I wonder if anyone has ever submitted in Comic Sans...!

I think Calibri is a nice half way house between Arial and TNR, I might have a play with it today...!

Its hard educational topic to discuss and also very professional but some days before i read book so in this i read history about thesis font so i share with you guys that, Thesis is a large typeface family designed by Lucas de Groot. The typefaces were designed between 1994 and 1999 to provide a modern humanist corporate font. Each typeface is available in a variety of weight as well as in italic.This is a bio data or you say history thesis hope you guys found this info informative.

Thanks for that, but I didn't really mean "thesis font" specifically, I was curious about what fonts people used in their thesis...!

======= Date Modified 05 Apr 2012 10:32:54 =======
My former University regulations stated "The minimum font size should be 11 and a maximum of size 12 for the main text. Appropriate fonts are Arial and Times New Roman." Spacing was to be set to 1.5 or 2 lines. The examination / research guidelaines for your University should have such information explicitly stated.

The specific guidance I received was as follows:

* Times New Roman 12 point was to be used for general text;

* Arial 12 point for figure or table body / content text - I would drop figure or table text down to 11 (or even in rare cases 10) if I had problems with too little space;

For headers, I was told to use:

* Arial Bold 14 point for main chapter headings;

* Arial Bold 12 point for main section headings (i.e 2.1, 2.2, etc.);

* Times New Roman Bold Italic 12 point for lower level section headings (i.e. 2.3.1, 2.3.2 or 2.3.2.1, 2.3.2.2, etc.) - I never went beyond a fourth level of header (i.e. 2.3.2.1 or 2.3.2.2);

* For Table or Figure Headers (not body / content - see above), Time New Roman Bold 12 point (not italicised).

The Thesis front sheet was in either Arial or Times New Roman 24. I opted for Times New Roman.

I was also told never to use more than two fonts, thus I stuck to the Times New Roman / Arial guidelines I was given above.

Tempting would have been to use Old English Text throughout. :-)


Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

Thanks Ian, that's really interesting! I just changed my reference list to Old English, hehe it looks wicked! I might do a bit of an experiment with my sups and send them chapters in different styled fonts and see what I get back (I hope they're not reading this!)

I will go and dig out my submission rules now, I do remember reading them a long time ago and I'm pretty sure it is a choice between arial and tnr so... we shall see!