[Tex/LaTex] Book cover fonts

book-designcoversfontssans-serif

I am typesetting my first book. I am using Computer Modern for the font. I am trying to decide which font to use for the covers/dust jacket.

I took a look at a number of similarly formatted books, and they all seem to use sans serif fonts for the cover, even if they are typeset with serif fonts in the body. Is there a good reason—aesthetic or otherwise—why one should use a sans serif font (e.g., CMSS) over regular CMR for the cover?

Backstory: My university has, in my opinion, an incredibly ugly format that is required for all Masters and Ph.D. theses. Double spaced, single sided, letter paper, small margins, single column … it just looks terrible. For my Ph.D. dissertation I of course used the required formatting for the archival versions that go to the university library, however, I also created my own style file that I think looks a lot better. I am going to use my "prettier" format for printing copies of my dissertation for my advisors, friends, family, &c. The book binder I am using allows me to customize the cover of the book.

Disclaimer: I realize this question isn't specifically related to (La)TeX, however, it is realted to typesetting; I hope it is not off topic!

Best Answer

I think the KOMA documentation puts it very nicely, when describing which title is created using \maketitle and how it differs from the book cover:

A cover is actually something that should be created in a separate document. The cover often has a very individual format. It can also be designed with the help of a graphics or DTP program. A separate document should also be used because the cover will be printed on a different medium, possibly cardboard, and possibly with another printer.

This means: the layout/formatting of the main document has absolutely no bearing on the layout and formatting of the cover.