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Si6392903

: What font size should be used for a children's book? I’ve been looking around, and so far I haven’t found much. Most places I find also suggest using Comic Sans so I'm hesitant to take

@Si6392903

Posted in: #Typography

I’ve been looking around, and so far I haven’t found much. Most places I find also suggest using Comic Sans so I'm hesitant to take their advice.

The book will be for ages 0 — 5, so very young, most likely their parents will read it to them. The page size is 6in x 9in and there’s a good paragraph worth of text on pages that have text. Should the font be the standard size 12 as other books? Or should it be bumped up for kids? How big is to big in that case? Is there a standard for this, or is it mostly guess and check?

This is the first time I’ve illustrated a children’s book, so I have no idea. Any help is much appreciated!

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@Jamie315

Small children need a larger font. Personally I like www.dyslexiefont.com/en/typeface/ and Comic Sans for young children (5-6). As they learn to read books take them to other fonts but I think size 18 to start with, when they are looking still at each letter, reducing to size 14 when they start reading whole words; size 12 at intermediate school (10 years-ish) and and only size 10 and down at high school.

My 10 year old son, who started the year full of hope and confidence, was blighted on the second day by the teacher trying to save paper. He had printed two timetables 8x20 cell to each A5 page. Furthermore, the teacher's copy was in color. The children's were in grayscale so the white on black showed up well but most of the rest was illegible to barely legible black on black/dark grey on black and less than size 6 font.

This is a barrier to achievement.

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@Correia448

Font size is very important to beginning readers.....the font should be a sans serif font to align with the letters that they are being taught to print. Adults prefer fonts with serifs....

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@Deb5748823

I agree with Mario - almost fully. But if you intend to be read by 4 or 5 years old kids then use the font they have at school. I used the 'Boo' and 'Palmemima' fonts in the books I prepared for my daughter.

At least in Spain... just my 2 cents.

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@Ogunnowo857

My advice as a parent

Kids of that age don't read books, they look at books and enjoy the images, colors and stuff.

Other people read those book to kids under the following conditions:


Bad light (because it's bed time)
The head of the kid in between the book and the reader
A never steady book, because the kids like to help holding it


As a result, use a font size that is comfortable to read under unusual conditions. The rest it typography as usual.

The font type is primary a matter of taste and style. As long a you choose a quality font, you should not have to worry about kerning etc. Go to myfonts.com or a similar service, but don't use Comic Sans – it's just boring – and no book should be boring. ;-)

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@Sims5801359

Typography for children's books is much more complicated that only font size, you must consider the font, kerning, leading etc.
Here's a very nice post that goes into detail regarding the basics that should help a lot!
They recommend 14-18pt with 16 to 22pt leading and I agree, but read the entire post!

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