Best font for magazines

[m5eedat]

We use Bona Nova font for this magazine designed in MS Publisher (as it is a free publication).

When printed, there is something about it that doesn't like right. Not sure what it is.

Is there a similar paid font that you recommend?

Do you think bembo would be good in this situation?

[Ralf Herrmann]

The request is a little vague. There are hundreds of typefaces that could work, but it’s not clear what the goal of the font choice would be. You would need to define what you want visually or what the technical requirements are (number of styles, character set, licensing ­…). 

Have you looked through all the Windows system fonts? There are probably good choices there already which would play nicely with Microsoft apps and come with a sufficiently large character set. 

[m5eedat]

Yes, the question is vague. I suppose it would be best to stick to the Windows system font.

[Bjørn Edvard Torbo]

3 hours ago, m5eedat said:

... there is something about it that doesn't like right. Not sure what it is.

If you're not sure what doesn't work, how could anyone assist you? 🤷‍♂️ You need to identify the problem, and share it. Then it would be possible to give advice. There are an abundance of beautiful typefaces out there, and Bembo is clearly one of them. I think Spectral would be a nice alternative to Bona Nova, if we were to stick to Google Fonts.

[pereelmagne]

Remember that hier, at Typography.guru, under Fonts > Font Lists, you have lists of free fonts that can be really useful.

[SapereAude]

My first reaction upon looking at the sample page is that the text isn't fully justified. Just changing that might make a difference.

 

My next comment is that, instead of indenting the first line of each new paragraph by one em, you instead added a blank line. I respectfully suggest eliminating the blank lines and indenting the first line of each paragraph (except that the first paragraph following a heading or section break should not be indented). (I typically indent 0.2", which equates to 5mm.)

 

Third comment: Is this a tabloid-size publication, or is it on letter-size paper (8-1/2" x 11" U.S., or A4 in most other places)? If it's on letter-size paper, with fairly wide margins and three columns, the columns are narrow. In general, we are advised to avoid using Times New Roman for body text because it is so widely used (and abused). However, this is exactly the application that Times New Roman was designed for -- being readable when used in the narrow columns typically used by newspapers.

[m5eedat]

Thank you for all the comments. It is a4 in size. 

[SapereAude]

Please let us know what changes you make, and whether or not the changes improve the final product.