Your chapter titles should stand out on the page. It will make it easier for someone flipping through your book to find the chapter they are looking for as well as add a visually appealing layout to your book. Select a font that is relatively easy to read, but is different from the body font. Don’t go too crazy with the font for your chapter titles, you want them to add to the appeal of your book, not be distractive. Newspapers usually use San-serif fonts for the headlines and serif fonts for the text. (Click Here for an explanation on Wikipedia about serifs.)
Here are some samples of pages that I like:
Chris Stevenson cs@sgenealogy.com
Thank you for this information.
Is 12 point still a good standard to use for basic text in a history? Would you use a different point size for chapter headers or photo captions?
Thanks.
Yes, 12 point is still a very readable size. I suggest that a larger point size be used for chapter headings. For photo captions, I like to use a slightly different font or point size (like 11 point) just to set them apart from the text in the book. Try a few different fonts and see which one you like best. If you are using Times Roman for your regular font, try the caption as bold italics and see if you like that. Good luck with your project.