No — do not use Times New Roman for a book interior. Times New Roman was designed in 1931 for The Times newspaper — its narrow letterforms are optimized for cramming text into narrow newspaper columns, not for comfortable reading in a 5.5×8.5 book. Using Times New Roman is the single fastest way to make a professionally written book look self-published. Every publishing professional — agents, editors, reviewers, bookstore buyers — recognizes it instantly.
Why Times New Roman doesn’t work for books
| Issue | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Too narrow | Characters are compressed to save newspaper column space — uncomfortable for book-length reading |
| x-Height is awkward | Neither small enough for elegance nor large enough for easy reading |
| Tight spacing | Letter spacing designed for dense newspaper columns, not the generous space of a book page |
| Signals “default” | Everyone knows it was Word’s default font for 20 years — it says “I didn’t think about typography” |
| No publishing house uses it | Zero traditionally published novels use Times New Roman for interior text |
What to use instead
These 5 fonts will immediately make your book look professionally published:
| Font | Why | Free? |
|---|---|---|
| Garamond | The publishing industry standard — warm, elegant, space-efficient | EB Garamond (free) |
| Palatino | Wider and warmer — excellent readability for long books | System font (free) |
| Baskerville | Refined and crisp — great for thrillers and nonfiction | Libre Baskerville (free) |
| Caslon | Organic, warm — perfect for literary and historical fiction | Libre Caslon (free) |
| Minion Pro | Modern classic — clean and professional | Adobe subscription |
Any of these fonts, at 11pt with 1.35× line spacing, will make your book look like it came from a major publisher. The change takes 30 seconds and the impact is enormous.
The real cost of Times New Roman
Page count
Times New Roman at 12pt (the Word default) produces more pages than proper book fonts at 11pt:
| Font & Size | Pages (80K words, 5.5×8.5) |
|---|---|
| Times New Roman 12pt | ~320 |
| Garamond 11pt | ~280 |
| Palatino 11pt | ~300 |
| Baskerville 11pt | ~290 |
Switching from TNR 12pt to Garamond 11pt saves ~40 pages — that’s $0.48 less per copy on KDP, or $480 per 1,000 copies.
Reader experience
In a 2012 study by filmmaker Errol Morris (published in the New York Times), readers rated statements in Baskerville as more believable than the same statements in other fonts. Typography affects how readers perceive your writing — subconsciously but measurably.
Cambric includes Garamond, Baskerville, Palatino, and 15+ more professional book fonts. No font licenses needed — pick a font and export.
Get Cambric — $199
”But my manuscript is in Times New Roman”
That’s fine. Manuscripts submitted to agents and editors are traditionally in Times New Roman 12pt, double-spaced — that’s a submission format, not a publishing format. They’re completely different:
| Manuscript (submission) | Book interior (publishing) | |
|---|---|---|
| Font | Times New Roman 12pt | Garamond/Palatino/Baskerville 11pt |
| Spacing | Double-spaced | 1.3–1.45× leading |
| Margins | 1” all sides | Varies by trim and page count |
| Purpose | Easy for editors to read and mark up | Comfortable for readers to enjoy |
When you move from manuscript to book, you change the font. Always.
Other fonts to avoid in books
| Font | Why Not |
|---|---|
| Calibri | Word’s current default — designed for screens, too light for print |
| Arial | Sans-serif, designed for screens — fatiguing for book-length reading |
| Helvetica | Same issue — sans-serif body text doesn’t work in print books |
| Comic Sans | Never |
| Courier | Monospace — designed for typewriters. Use only for stylistic elements (ship logs, code) |
| Cambria | Designed for screens, too heavy and square for book pages |
How to switch fonts
- Choose a book font — Garamond if you’re not sure (it’s always right)
- Set body text to 11pt — not 12pt
- Set line spacing to 1.35× — not double-spaced
- Adjust margins for your trim size — not 1” all around
- Export as PDF with fonts embedded
Or use Cambric — import your manuscript and the typography is handled automatically.
Related guides
- Best fonts for fiction — top 12 book fonts
- Best fonts for nonfiction — body + heading pairings
- Font size for books — sizing by trim and genre
- Garamond vs Baskerville — detailed comparison
- Book Font Explorer — preview fonts interactively