Mystery: Source Serif 4 and Oswald
For a mystery or thriller novel in paperback, set the body in Source Serif 4 at 11/14.5 pt and chapter titles in Oswald, on a 5.5 × 8.5 in trim. A readable transitional body with a strong condensed heading.
| Body text | Source Serif 4 Styles used: 400, 700, 400 italic. Licence: SIL Open Font License 1.1. |
|---|---|
| Chapter titles | Oswald Styles used: 400, 700. Licence: SIL Open Font License 1.1. |
| Body size / leading | 11 / 14.5 pt |
| Margins | top 0.75 in (19 mm), bottom 0.75 in (19 mm), inside 0.625 in (15.9 mm), outside 0.5 in (12.7 mm) |
About this preview
Your browser sets the preview, so line breaks and hyphens can fall a little differently from the PDF your formatting software makes. The fonts, sizes and margins are the ones in the table.
The margins assume a book of about 300 pages, for which KDP asks for an inside margin of at least 0.5 in (12.7 mm). For your own page count, use the KDP cover calculator.
The SIL Open Font License (OFL) allows you to use these fonts freely in print publications and e-books, even if you sell them. Referencing or embedding an OFL font in a document does not change the license of the document itself.
More novel templates
Sources (last verified 2026-09-30):
- Google Fonts: Source Serif 4: styles and licence
- Google Fonts: Oswald: styles and licence
- SIL Open Font License FAQ: using OFL fonts in books
- Project Gutenberg: A Scandal in Bohemia: sample text, public domain
- KDP: Trim, bleed and margins: trim sizes and minimum margins
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