Before getting into the nitty-gritty on how to change default font in Scrivener, let’s first understand a bit about the application.
Scrivener has been explicitly designed for writers of all kinds, be it non-fiction writers, fiction-writer, screenwriters, academics, journalists, translators, and others. It is a software that doesn’t teach a writer how to write, rather, it offers everything that helps writers to start writing and keep writing.
One of the main issues that writers face, particularly when writing long forms of text is to organize all the research and other materials in one place. It is difficult to maintain research data and other documents in a way that they can be easily accessible. Scrivener does exactly that.
The software provides helpful tools that are designed to help writers like you. It helps to organize notes, research data, concepts, photos, videos, and all other important things in one place. Doing this will help in easily accessing them.
Scrivener is also beneficial for projects that require to be performed under a team. Now, if you are working on a writing project with your team, the software enables your team members to add comments, annotations, edit text phrases, insert images, etc. in your document.
Now, back to the main topic: Scrivener comes with a default font. The default font in Scrivener for Mac is 13 point “Palatino Regular”. On the other hand, the default font in Scrivener for Windows is “Calibri”. If you find these default fonts uninteresting then you have the opportunity to change these fonts according to your preferences.
But why do you need to change fonts? It is said that changing fonts helps writers to write more productively. Some studies have claimed that changing the fonts of the text can help in removing writer’s block. Changing the font types and sizes have the capability of improving your mood that helps in completing your writing task at hand. Apart from improving your mood, changing the fonts also helps in spotting new errors when you are working on proofreading your projects.
Scrivener allows you to select your favorite fonts in the editor. Most writers like to have a favorite font for their new projects. Whenever they start on a new project, they want to apply their favorite font while writing a new scene. Now, if you are one of those writers who want to change the default font setting, Scrivener allows you to do that.
From here on you will learn how to change default font in Scrivener. Below are the steps that will help you in setting your preferred fonts when you are looking to start a new project.
Steps On How To Change Default Font In Scrivener For New Projects
Changing Default Font In Scrivener on Mac
Let’s do this by taking an example. We are going to first create a new project for a Fiction Novel in Scrivener. For creating a fiction novel in Scrivener on Mac, follow the steps below:
- Open the Scrivener application on Mac.
- You will get a window screen with different project templates such as Blank, Fiction, Non-fiction, Scriptwriting, Poetry and Lyrics, and Miscellaneous.
- Now, select the Fiction project.
- In the project, you will have templates like Novel, Novel (NaNoWriMo), Novel (with parts), Novel + Aeon Timeline (NaNoWriMo), and Short Story.
- Select the Novel template.
- Next, after selecting the Novel template, click the Choose button.
- After picking the Novel template, you will find a Binder section on the left side of the screen. Under the Binder section in Scrivener, you have a Manuscript, a folder called Chapter, and a text file called Scene. The Scene text document is where you start writing your fiction novel.
There you go. Following the above steps, you can create a new project in Scrivener.
Now, let’s look at changing the default font for the above fiction novel on Mac.
- When you open the “Scene” text document, and start typing, the text appears in the default font which is Palatino.
- To change the default font setting, first, select the text.
- Now, go to the top of the screen where you will find a dropdown with Palatino as the default font type.
- Click the drop-down box to find different font types. Choose your favorite font type.
- After choosing your favorite font, you will see the text changed to your chosen font type.
- Now, when you again create a new “Scene” text document, and start typing, you will find that the text has again reverted to the default font setting.
- To avoid such a situation, first, select the text in the new text document and change its font to your favorite font type.
- Next, navigate to the Project option which is on the top of the Scrivener application. Click the Project option to find Project Settings.
- Click on the Project Settings option where you will find the Formatting tab.
- Upon selecting the Formatting tab, you will find a checkbox “Use different default formatting for new documents in this project”. Check that option and also click on the “Use Current” button. After that, click on the OK button.
- Next time, create a new “Scene” text document for the existing project and start typing in the text document. Here you will find that the text will appear in your preferred font setting.
Till now, we have seen how to change default font in Scrivener on Mac. Next, we will see the same, performed on Windows. Follow the steps below to change the default font in Scrivener on Windows.
Changing Default Font In Scrivener On Windows
Let’s take the same example of creating a Fiction novel. Follow the steps below to create a novel in Scrivener on Windows.
- Open the Scrivener application on Windows.
- You will get a window screen with different project templates such as Blank, Fiction, Non-fiction, Scriptwriting, Poetry and Lyrics, and Miscellaneous.
- Now, select the Fiction project.
- In the project, you will have templates like Novel, Novel (NaNoWriMo), Novel (with parts), Novel + Aeon Timeline (NaNoWriMo), and Short Story.
- Select the Novel template.
- Next, after selecting the Novel template, click the Create button.
- As you will notice that on Mac, you have the Choose button but in Windows, you have the Create button. This is the sole difference between them when creating a new Scrivener project.
- Now, after picking the Novel template, you will find a Binder section on the left side of the screen.
- Under the Binder section in Scrivener, you have a Manuscript, a folder called Chapter, and a text file called Scene. The “Scene” text document is where you start writing your fiction novel.
Now, let’s look at how to change the default font in Scrivener on Windows.
- In the “Scene” text document, start writing. Once you start typing, you can see that the text appears in the default font “Calibri”.
- Now, to change the text from the default font setting to your preferred setting, navigate to the Tools option. Click on the Tools option.
- After clicking on the Tools option, you will find options like Spelling, Writing Tools, Scratch Pad, Customize Toolbars and Options. You need to click on the Options.
- You will see a pop-up box with many options. Navigate to the Editor option and click on that.
- After clicking on the Editor option, you will find the symbol “A”. Click on that symbol.
- Once you click on that symbol, another pop-up box appears.
- In that pop-up box, you will find different font styles. Select your favorite font style and click the OK button.
- After selecting the font style, you need to click the Apply button and then click the OK button.
- Once you do that, you will find the font of the text changed to your preferred font setting.
So, there you have it, you can now easily change the default font to your preferred font on Windows.
Whether it is on Mac or Windows, following the above steps will help you in changing the default font to your designed font in Scrivener.
To Sum Up
Scrivener is a great tool for all kinds of writers be it non-fiction writers, fiction-writer, screenwriters, academics, journalists, translators, and others. It supports them by offering helping tools that will enable them to start writing and keep writing.
Speaking of the font setting in the software, it comes with a default font setting. In Mac, the default font setting is Palatino whereas on Windows the default font setting is Calibri. Some writers find the default font setting to be boring, and they prefer to have a font of their liking. Scrivener gives that opportunity. It allows writers like you to change the default font setting to your preferred font setting.
To change the default font setting to your preferred setting, all you need to do is follow the above steps. In this article, we have provided a comprehensive guide on how to change the default font setting in Scrivener for both Windows and Mac users.
