standard book font
 

does anyone know what the standard font for scientfic books might be? i have attached an example, but if you know of another, please share! thanks http://gonzo.uni-weimar.de/~emep5517/ftpro.jpg

Looks like Times or Times New Roman to me. My favorites.

Love,
Sultana,
Editor of Technical Manuals.

Sometimes the publisher writes what fonts have been used on the publishing info/copyrights page in the beginning of the book. I don't think there is an actual 'standard' font for scientific publishing though, but Times New Roman is never wrong!

If I'm remembering things correctly, that looks like a "half-serif" font, meaning a font that falls in between no serifs and full seifs. I think that half-serifed fonts are the most pleasing for the eye to read for long periods of time, because the half serifs make the words seem to flow into each other without being obnoxious and looking like lots of flotsam hanging off all the letters.

I've seen this in quite a few books. There always seems to be some variation.

I agree with sage that those fonts are definitely not fun to read for long periods of time.

I'm a Chemist and believe me when I tell you that sometimes those text books have an affect on me like they were doused in choloroform... I just pass right out. Other times they just give me a raging headache.

Sorry I didn't help though... but I think they could definitely have a better font than the one they use.

It's Times New Roman, which is a serif font. There's really no such thing as a "half-serif" font, though some font foundries like to tought such things. Serif is to have the accented "tails" and sans is without them. You can't half have something like that :-p But sometimes they are smaller than others (petit-serif).

As a side note, the easiest letters to differentiate serif fonts are capital- T, L and Q. You'll notice the greatest difference there most often. In the T, for instance, Times has flat sides on the outside, and a slant on the inside at the left and right of the top bar, while Garamond slants on both sides of both sides. Rockwell (a "slab" style serif font) is flat on all faces and looks similar to a typewriter typeface, but is not monospace. So on and so forth...