Typeface · Serif

Doulos SIL

Doulos SIL (Ancient Greek for "slave") is a serif typeface developed by SIL International, very similar to Times or Times New Roman.

About Doulos SIL

Doulos SIL (Ancient Greek for "slave") is a serif typeface developed by SIL International, very similar to Times or Times New Roman. Unlike Times New Roman, Doulos only has a single face, Regular. The goal of its design according to the SIL International website is to "provide a single Unicode-based font family that would contain a comprehensive inventory of glyphs needed for almost any Roman- or Cyrillic-based writing system, whether used for phonetic or orthographic needs." Along with Charis SIL and Gentium, it is licensed under the SIL Open Font License (OFL). This font has a cousin specially designed for numbered musical notation named Doulos SIL Cipher. Version 7, published in June 2025, may be the last version to be supported; SIL suggests switching to one of their other typefaces.

From the Wikipedia article “Doulos SIL”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Using Doulos SIL in a book

Serif typefaces like this are the traditional choice for book body text: the serifs guide the eye along the line in long passages. Set novels at 10.5–12 pt with 125–140% leading.

Commercial typefaces require a licence that covers embedding in PDFs and ebooks; check the foundry's licence before you publish.

Sources & data