This question would be better posted in the Publisher General questions
newsgroup
(http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public
.publisher&lang=en&cr=US)
or Publisher prepress newsgroup
(http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public
.publisher.prepress&lang=en&cr=US),
However your best fonts for readability are serif fonts at between 10 and 12
points, similar to those used in most newspapers (in fact large newspaper
chains spend a great deal on designing fonts for readability), this is why
Publishers default font is Times New Roman set to 10 points. There have been
studies done on things such as column width and line spacing as well, which
is why newspapers are laid out in columns (I think that ideal column width is
about 4" wide, but I can't remember for sure).

Some fonts to be considered (but this is not a complete list):
— Bodoni (in its many variations)
— Book Antiqua
— Bookman (in its many variations)
— Garamond (multiple font vendors for this one, all different, also in
multiple variations)
— Georgia (this font was designed for fax use, web use, etc.)
— Times (in all it's variations)
You may also find more information on this subject at:
http://desktoppub.about.com