What’s the best legal document font size and style?
Make your legal documents look professional using court-approved and other common legal font styles and sizes.
Legal documents need to be clear and legible. That’s why it’s important to use type styles that look clean and professional. Stick with approved fonts and sizes to make your documents easy to read.
Court-approved legal document fonts.
Fonts are important for legibility and readability. If you use an “annoying” font style, it may be difficult to read what you wrote. In a legal setting, it’s especially important to make all writing as clear and professional as possible.
While there’s no one “official” font style for preparing legal documents, there are a few court-approved fonts that are considered most easily readable:
- Arial
- Century (and Century-related fonts like Century Schoolbook)
- Verdana
- Adobe Caslon Pro
- Adobe Sabon
You might have noticed that Times New Roman and Calibri didn’t make the list. Although many courts and lawyers accept these “default” fonts, they’re not preferred. And — whatever you do — stay away from novelty fonts like Comic Sans. They’ll just make your document look unprofessional.
If you’re not sure which font to use, you can always read other legal documents that have been accepted by the court or lawyer and use whichever font they chose. That way, you won’t have to wonder if your font is right.
Font size also matters for legal documents.
Similarly to the font style, there’s no “standard” font size for legal documents. Courts only require that the font is legible.
Most courts and lawyers recommend using a 12-point font for legal documents. That’s large enough for anyone to be able to read and still small enough that you can fit plenty of information on a single page. Using an overly large font is obnoxious to read and takes up too many pages.
What size paper should you use for a legal document?
Font style and size for legal documents matter — and so does the size of the paper you use. Paper sizing can affect the legibility and flow of a legal document, which is why your choice of paper should be carefully considered.
Generally, you'll want to use 8.5” x 14” sized paper, which gives ample space for multiple signature blocks or extra content. Margins are normally kept to the standard print size, resulting in 1” margins on every side around unless they are manually altered.
This type of paper was also known as “foolscap” paper, and has been associated with the legal profession for hundreds of years.
While longer legal paper is considered the best and most standard option for legal use, you may also use 8.5” by 11” (standard printer paper size) for correspondence as well. This may be more commonly seen as a type of paper used for reference materials, such as printed email citations or testimony transcriptions.
Simplify legal font styling with Acrobat.
Adobe solutions make creating legal documents a breeze. You can choose from pre-approved templates that include the right legal document font and size.
Once you’ve created your legal documents, use Acrobat Pro with e-sign to add your legal signature online. From creation to approval, Adobe can help simplify legal document procedures — such as editing PDFs or password-protecting important documents.
Find out more about Adobe Acrobat Sign.
