There has been some complaints about some of the scripts in the OWC not adhering to Courier 12.  

Personally they all look fine to me. I took a quick peek at the Bloomb script and it looks fine then I read Cumbara and it looks the same to me as far as fonts and size goes. I have now opened Ghost In The Graveyard and it looks the same as well..

I'd like to know if anyone else are having issues with this. If that's the case, I'd like to suggest that no one condemns a script due to font/size since we apparently are seeing things differently according to PC's and browsers.

Btw, for those of you who don't know, if someone uses FD, there are several options for what "style" of script you want to use. They all look slightly different, but they are all very much acceptable in the business.  :)

My complaint regarding one of the scripts - the one you mention I believe - was that the font made it difficult to read. As I understand pdfs they should look exactly the same no matter what os you use to open them! I may be wrong on this though.

The reason courier 12pt is recommended is not because of style but because it allows all scripts to be judged equally as to length etc. A script of 100 pages done in 20pt Broadway would obviously be a lot shorter than one in 10pt Andalus!

I know of at least one leading screenwriter who refuses to use Courier however, as he doesn't like the look of it!

I use Celtx and sadly it does not give me an option on fonts.

Celtix is the worst... Absolutley ballz.

Quoted from Niles_Crane The reason courier 12pt is recommended is not because of style but because it allows all scripts to be judged equally as to length etc. A script of 100 pages done in 20pt Broadway would obviously be a lot shorter than one in 10pt Andalus!

Niles,

I know why courier 12pt is used...  what I was referring to is if you used Final Draft for example, when you start a new screenplay you have to chose from a menu between "screenplay (Cole and Haag).fdt", "screenplay (Warner Brothers).fdt" or "screenplay.fdt"

They all look a little different. Especially Cole and Haag.

Courier is used because it's a monospaced font and monospaced fonts, in general, increase the readability compared to proportional fonts since the eye tend to recognize the shape of the word and not the letters themselves.

That being said, Courier looks like shit imo.

all my scripts have been done on Celtx. I haven't the budget to buy software and don't need to.
No one has ever questioned the font or layout of my scripts. Balt, you've actually read a couple of my shorts, including my OWC one yesterday.
Ok, you didn't like it( that's sweet) but it was done on Celtx.

A fixed-pitched font should be used, this is one in which every letter occupies the same amount of space on the line, regardless of it being lower or upper case.

Most script software programmes do this automatically, but if you don’t have a script programme use 12 point Courier. This presents your script with 10 characters per horizontal inch and 6 lines of type or spacing per vertical inch. Always in black., with no italics or bold type.

In addition to this it ensures the margins and indentations match industry expectations.

That being; Shot Headings, Dialogue, Character Names over Dialogue, Scene Transitions and even Page Numbering.

Shot Headings – left 1.7” – line length 57 characters
Descriptive text – left 1.7” – line length 57 characters
Dialogue – left 2.7” – line length 34 charters
Character Name over Dialogue – left 4.1”
Parenthetical Character Direction – left 3.4” – 19 characters
Page Numbers – left 7.2” – .5” below edge of top of page
Page Length – 60 lines – leaving .5” bottom margin
Paper size – Letter 8.5” x 11”.

Why such importance is placed on the font and margins is a simple case of conformity with a purpose.

Using this formula one page translates on average to one minute on screen. It also helps with costing and provides a margin for a reader or producer’s notes, scene numbers and ease of use, particularly in the read.

It pays to remember that computers didn’t exist when film making began and every script was typed. It is from the typewriter that the structure of formatting began.

Thought I would bump this.

I have written my 7WC on an iPad, final draft. On conversion, transfer or whatever you call it, to my Mac - also FD - the paper numbers were very different. In fact the imported version had no numbers at all. A seperate but annoying issue.

Anyway, after the usual fun and games that only computers and software seem to achieve, I discovered that one had been written in U.S. Letter and the other A4

Difference is 7 pages on a 101 page script. Ie it went down to 94

Considering the difference I checked out a few competitions to see if A4 is permitted. Nothing mentioned.

Just wondered if anybody else has had issues on this as the variance is enough to throw up a problem for some, or a solution for others, eg script over 120 pages are not always accepted

Any other issues with using A4 that we should think of?

Cheers

A4 and Letter are both fine as far as I know. I use US letter, but will switch up to A4 if a larger script called for it.

Had a similar issue recently and looked around the web to get an idea of the consensus.  One issue that was brought up a couple of times was in printing.  A4 is slightly longer than US Letter -- averaging slightly more lines of script per page.  If you write and save a pdf of the script to European A4 and someone then prints it using US Letter sizing it could end up lopping off some of your work.  

Guess it all depends on to whom and how you’re sending it out, but something to consider -- a little technicality that could trip you up further down the line.

Steve  

I think US letter is preferred and I've seen it mentioned in a couple of Competition guides... And of course, similar issues exist with fonts... I stick to the Courier font installed in FInal Draft, which is their own but there's also normal courier and a version created by John August (Courier Prime ?)

Just another set of screenwriting stuff that there's no rules for ;-)

I see a lot of different fonts, but I just assume they're all different variations of Courier.

Final Draft Courier, New Courier, Standard Courier ect.

Weird.