I recently submitted an extract of my would-be Ur-Novel to a writing competition, where the rules stated that all entries must be in Arial 12 point. I could have cried. All that work, and it ends up in Arial… even I, its fond creator, don’t like the look of it now! 
My default setting for Scrivener on screen (Apple Display 20") is: Times Roman, 14 pt, Single Space, 175%.
On paper, I reduce Times Roman to 13 or 12 pt.
But I like Palatino too; and among the sans serif fonts my favorite is Verdana: simple, clear, robust.
Times New Roman 12 pt. for all text views and printing, Lucinda 9 pt. for binder/drawer views. Georgia 9 pt. when I need a small font. I pretty much kept the defaults in Scr. save for the text font.
Im getting sick of this! It seems to me, that everywhere I go in these forums, I drastically lower the tone. My favorite font is one that came with a Cover CD on the front of MAC Format, years ago . Its a vampire font with little drops of blood under each letter. My second favorite is more sensible, that ones Halloween.
Take care
Vic
Hi, Mark,
This isn’t so much the case anymore. Most publishing houses accept the various incarnations of Times (I use Times New Roman) with no problem. As long as it’s not hand-written in green ink on yellow legal pads, I don’t think they are as fussy as they used to be.
In the old days, they relied on using the standard Courier 12pt to estimate book length (and hence production costs). Now they usually also ask for a digital copy of the manuscript (sometimes that’s all they want) and use the computer-generated word count for estimates.
If in doubt, just check with them. (And you always can send them a manuscript in Courier 12pt, if you really want to. 
)
Things do change in the publishing world, it just takes them a decade or two longer than everyone else. 
Well I didn’t start out on a typewriter and I prefer to draft in Courier… 
I like it because it is simple and clean. I find it easier to read than any other font.
For final work it all depends on the media.
Hi Studio717,
I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to respond; exam time here in the university day-job!
That’s good to know though whether I will ever get round to writing any of the books people keep telling me I ought to write, I have no idea.
As the Romans used to say, de gustibus non est disputandum … By which I simply mean that we all of us rightly have our own preferences. The good Anglo-Saxon, “There’s no accounting for tastes” is so much more rude, which is not intended here!
Mark
Chalkboard has distinguished Mac look and reminds me of the my teaching days 
.
Bitstream Vera Sans Mono
dafont.com/font.php?file=bitstream_vera_mono
I spend most of my time in terminals and text editors as a programmer, and Vera is the first font to make me give up Misc Fixed in almost 20 years.
Being a graphic designer, I probably have slightly different criteria than most of you 
For print design jobs, I favour Helvetica, Univers, Gill Sans and Optima. (Optima is a beautiful font, but it was never designed for screen use, and I think it lacks clarity on-screen compared to many others.)
Writing on-screen, though, I prefer to use fonts designed for that purpose - Georgia is my standard prose drafting font, with Verdana for notes and outlines. (And Courier for scripts, of course, but not for its aesthetic qualities…)
Have you tried ProFont? It was designed specifically for fixed-width coding on the Mac, based on Monaco. I’ve used it for HTML coding for years (and at one point plaint text email viewing), and I love it.
I did but I don’t recall exactly what prevented me from using it. Most fonts failed me over the years because they would look stunning at particular sizes, and then disgusting at others. The omnipresent misc-fixed always delivered.
I’ll give it another whirl now though, since I’m using a mac display full-time. Thanks for the reminder about a very nice looking font.
Ah, that’s still true - ProFont is designed for use at 9-point only. At any other size it can look a bit odd. Though OSX’s built-in antialiasing certainly makes it look better at other sizes than it did in OS9…
I like Trajan Pro for Titles
Serif I like Adobe Garamond Pro
San Serif I like Humanist 777 BT
Monaco for code
Beautiful new monospace font that works well at multiple sizes:
levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html
(via 43 Folders)
Inconsolata certainly looks a crisp, clean font. Just right for those long, long nights, suffering sleep deprivation, the mind racing with inspiration. (Okay, I can dream can’t I?)
When I was very young, I spent most of my nights in front of the electric typewriter in my father’s office. It printed with a nice and clear, very elegant Optima daisywheel, that I was affected to find as the default font in Scrivener.
However, my preferred font for writing is Lucida Sans. I would have preferred Lucida Grande, but it lacks italics, and I use it often. These two fonts are very readable, yet elegant, and very well integrated with the Mac.
Paolo
I, too, love Georgia.
The Lucida font is also a fond favorite. For years, I used Bookman for printing, because I like it and its name.
I have drifted over the years.
Serifs: Adobe Garamond, Minion, and at times Lucida Bright or Palatino
I like the italics for each.
San Serif: Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Sans
Optima is a half-way font between the two groups (from my visual perspective), so can be used at times.
I’ve long been a fan of Palatino set at 11pt. Both my novels were submitted with that font and size. Because of this thread I took a look at Georgia and there’s a marked similarity. But to my eyes Palatino looks fuller and warmer somehow.
I have to say though I much prefer the italics and bold forms of Georgia to the Palatino equivalents. Now I’m torn.