Manuscript Font

[Adam Bourgoin]

Ok people. There is so much argument over manuscript font....I want to know, what is the correct font? If I had a nickel for every time I changed the font on my work in progress, I wouldn't need to try to get published because I'd give Bill Gates a run for his money....right now I have it in Courier New-in my opinion the correct one. What are your thoughts?

[I. J. Parker]

Yes, but beware of "designers" who cram so many words on every page (to save paper) that the font becomes tiny and all those middle-aged ladies, who are the largest portion of book buyers, can't read the published book without serious eye strain.

[Jude Hardin]

I used to use Courier, but TNR makes the page numbers come out closer to what they would be in print, so I use that now for fiction. All 12pt of course. I understand screenplays are automatic roundfile if they show up in anything other than Courier.

[D.R. MacMaster]

Courier 12 is the default for screenplays. Because it reads out to about 45 seconds to 1 minute per page, and allows them to calculate run-time fairly accurately. 120 pg script= 2 hour movie, more or less.

In fact I wonder why screenwriting programs offer alternate fonts. Are they trying to sabotage to unwary?

*Cue suspenseful conspiracy music*

;)

[John McFetridge]

When I started working on this TV show they gave us all Movie Magic Screenwriter. It never occurred to me there might be other fonts, but I just checked and there is a "Word Processor" mode so maybe that one has other fonts.

Me, I never touch the defaults....

[D.R. MacMaster]

I still use the same ScriptThing (which I believe is the predecessor of Movie Magic) and you can access all the fonts. Of course it's over 10 years old, so it probably doesn't have all the features of the modern ones.

In fact, it's so old, when I print a script a little bird chips it out of rock like in an episode of the Flintstones.