How tall or wide any given letter is depends on how the type designer drew it within the em square, thus a fontвЂ™s height and width can vary greatly depending on the design of the typeface. The point size of a font tells you the size of the вЂњem squareвЂќ in which your computer displays each letter of the typeface. A point is 1/ 72 of an inch, roughly one pixel on a computer screen. The standard unit for measuring type size is the point. Since theyвЂ™re more readable for long passages and have sharper contrast in their italics, you should always use a serif font for the text of an academic paper. Most serifs, on the other hand, do have a true italic style, with distinctive letter forms and more compact spacing. Their вЂњitalicsвЂќ are really just вЂњobliques,вЂќ where the letters slant slightly to the right but keep the same shape and spacing. Moreover, most sans serifs donвЂ™t have a true italic style. Sans serifs (Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Gill Sans, Verdana, and so on) work well for single lines of text, like headings or titles, but they rarely make a good choice for body text. ( Sans is French for вЂњwithout.вЂќ) Serif fonts also vary the thickness of the letter strokes more than sans serifs, which have more uniform lines.Д«ooks, newspapers, and magazines typically set their main text in a serif font because they make paragraphs and long stretches of text easier to read. Serif fonts have these extra strokes sans serif fonts do not. Serifs are the tiny strokes at the end of a letterвЂ™s main strokes. So which fonts are вЂњeasily readableвЂќ and have вЂњclearlyвЂќ contrasting italics? And what exactly is a вЂњstandardвЂќ size?ДЇor academic papers, an вЂњeasily readable typefaceвЂќ means a serif font, and a вЂњstandardвЂќ type size is between 10 and 12 point. Times New Roman) in which the regular style contrasts clearly with the italic, and set it to a standard size (e.g. (See: Document Format.) But their advice on font selection is less precise: вЂњAlways choose an easily readable typeface (e.g. The Modern Language Association (MLA) provides explicit, specific recommendations for the margins and spacing of academic papers.

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