Font choice in a formal document is mostly a question of what the institution already decided. The interesting problems start where nobody decided anything.
Academic work: check before choosing
This is a compliance question far more often than a design one. Universities and journals specify fonts, and a submission in the wrong one can be returned before anyone reads it.
The requirement usually lives in the style guide, the submission portal, or a departmental template. Read it first — the rest of this section only applies where nothing is specified.
| Style | Typical requirement | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| APA 7th | Several permitted, incl. 12pt Times New Roman | Also allows 11pt Calibri and Arial |
| MLA 9th | Any legible font, 12pt | Regular and italic must differ clearly |
| Chicago | A readable serif, 12pt | Times New Roman is the default assumption |
| Most theses | Set by the university | Check the handbook, not the internet |
APA is the one people get wrong, because the older editions required Times New Roman specifically and a great deal of advice still says so. The seventh edition permits a list including sans-serif options. If a supervisor insists on Times New Roman, that is a departmental preference rather than the style guide, and it is still the requirement that matters.
Where nothing is specified
A serif at 11 or 12 point, double spaced, with generous margins. That is the whole answer for a printed academic document, and it is not a matter of taste — it is what the reading conventions of the field expect.
The reason to prefer a serif in print is not that serifs are inherently more readable, which is a much-repeated claim with weak evidence behind it. It is that formal print documents have looked that way for a century, and an unusual choice draws attention to itself in a document where attention should be on the argument.
- Safe serifs: Times New Roman, Georgia, Palatino, Garamond, Cambria.
- Safe sans: Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Verdana.
- Avoid: anything with personality — display faces, condensed faces, Comic Sans, Papyrus.
- Watch Garamond: it runs small, so 12pt Garamond reads noticeably smaller than 12pt Times. Set it a point larger.
That last point catches people out when a word count or page count is involved. Point size measures the em, not the letters, so two fonts at the same nominal size can differ substantially in apparent size and in how much text fits a page.
Certificates: embedding is the real constraint
A certificate is a design job with one hard technical requirement that overrides aesthetics: the font must embed in the PDF.
If it does not, the recipient's reader substitutes something else, and a certificate that arrives in a substituted font is visibly wrong in a way that is not correctable once issued. Many display and script faces — exactly the sort of thing that suits a certificate — carry licences that forbid embedding.
- Check the licence before designing, not after. Look for embedding permission explicitly.
- Verify after exporting — document properties should show every font as Embedded or Embedded Subset.
- Consider outlining the display text. For a headline and a name, converting to outlines removes the question permanently. Keep body text as text.
- Test on another machine that does not have the fonts installed. This is the only reliable check.
That final test matters because a font installed locally will display correctly on your machine whether or not it embedded. The failure is invisible to the person who created the file and obvious to everyone else.
What suits a certificate
| Element | Suggestion | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Recipient name | A script or elegant serif, large | It is the focus of the document |
| Body text | A clean serif at 12–14pt | Must be legible, not decorative |
| Titles and awards | Small caps or a spaced serif | Formality without shouting |
| Dates and reference numbers | Tabular numerals | Digits align and read as official |
| Signatures | An image, not a font | A script font does not read as a signature |
Two conventions worth respecting. Certificates are almost always landscape, and they use more whitespace than feels comfortable in a draft — crowding is the commonest thing that makes one look cheap. And a script font used for the signature line fools nobody; a real signature image, or a signing tool, reads as genuine because it is.
Why emoji break
Emoji in a PDF come out as empty boxes, plain outlines, or the wrong colours. The cause is that emoji are not really a font problem — they are several font problems at once.
Colour emoji rely on font formats that carry bitmap or vector colour data, and there are competing incompatible standards for that. A PDF generator that can embed an ordinary font often cannot embed a colour emoji font, so it substitutes a monochrome fallback or nothing at all.
- Empty boxes: no font in the chain contains that character. Nothing was embedded.
- Black-and-white emoji: a monochrome fallback embedded instead of the colour font.
- Different-looking emoji: platform designs differ. The same character is drawn differently by Apple, Google and Microsoft.
- Newer emoji missing: the installed font predates that Unicode version.
The reliable fix is to stop treating them as text. Insert the emoji as an image — a PNG or SVG at sufficient resolution — and it renders identically everywhere, embeds without difficulty and cannot be substituted. For a document that must look the same for every reader, that is the only approach that holds.
Checking the result
Every font problem in this article is invisible on the machine that created the file, because that machine has the fonts.
So the check has to happen elsewhere. Open document properties and confirm every font says Embedded or Embedded Subset, then open the PDF on a device that has never had those fonts installed — a phone is ideal, since it has a small and predictable font set.
Thirty seconds of checking prevents the two failures that cannot be undone after distribution: a thesis that reflows in the examiner's reader, and a certificate that arrives in the wrong typeface.
Frequently asked questions
What font should I use for academic work?
Whatever the style guide or university handbook specifies — this is a compliance question first. Where nothing is specified, a serif at 11–12 point, double spaced, is the safe default. Note that APA 7th no longer requires Times New Roman specifically, despite a great deal of advice that still says so.
Is Times New Roman still required for APA?
No. The 7th edition permits several fonts including 11pt Calibri, 11pt Arial and 12pt Times New Roman. Older editions required Times New Roman, which is why the claim persists. A supervisor may still insist on it as a departmental preference.
Why does 12pt Garamond look smaller than 12pt Times?
Point size measures the em, not the letters. Garamond has a small x-height, so it reads noticeably smaller at the same nominal size and fits more text per page. Set it a point larger, and be aware of the effect if a page count is involved.
What font is best for a PDF certificate?
Whichever one you can legally embed. Many display and script faces forbid embedding, and a substituted font on an issued certificate cannot be corrected. Beyond that, use a script or elegant serif for the name, a clean serif for body text, and tabular numerals for dates and reference numbers.
How do I check whether fonts embedded correctly?
Open document properties — each font should say Embedded or Embedded Subset. Then open the file on a device that does not have the fonts installed, such as a phone. A locally installed font displays fine whether or not it embedded, so the failure is invisible on the machine that made the file.
Why do emoji appear as boxes in my PDF?
Colour emoji depend on font formats carrying colour data, and there are competing incompatible standards. Many PDF generators cannot embed a colour emoji font, so they substitute a monochrome fallback or nothing. Insert emoji as images instead — they then render identically everywhere.
Should I use a script font for a signature line?
No. A script font does not read as a signature to anyone. Use an image of a real signature, or a signing tool that places and flattens one into the page.