Fonts For Print and Online Documentation

Introduction and font type are the terms used to describe the style of lettering used in printing and publishing. Different can be used to communicate and facilitate legibility and the culture of an organization.

Fonts for print and online documentation

Although there are many choices of fonts type available today, not all fonts are appropriate for every documents. For instance, if I am going to do a project that requires me to submit my finish work in a printed format, can I just use any fonts that I like? No, first I would have to think about choosing a font type that would be most appropriate, for print document, so that whoever would be reading it would not any difficulty when reading. Online documents also requires appropriate fonts for the same reason that printed documents requires them.

When writing documents, whether it on a computer or for print works, the font choice is very important. The key to font selection is to use the most readable fonts. Fonts used for documents, whether reports, resumes, or online must allow easy readability to anyone who access it.

Types of fonts

Fonts are categorized into "families" based on their characteristic. The most common are serif, sans serif, cursive, fantasy, and monospace. Although these are all common, only two of these are used for print and online documentation - serif and sans serif.

Serif fonts are characterize by little feet and embellishments on the tips and base of each letter,( as see in the example below) making them more distinct and recognizable.

Example of serif fonts: l f i

Nearly every books, newspapers, magazines use serif font. It is popularly accepted that - in print - serif fonts are easier to read, because the serifs actually make the letters follow together, subsequently making it easier on the eyes.

Example of serif fonts are :

Times New Roman (AaBbCc...FfGg)

Garamond (AaBbCc...FfGg)

Georgia (AaBbCc...FfGg)

Book Antiqua (AaBbCc...FfGg)

Sans serif fonts are mostly used in advertisement . Sans serif fonts are unlike serif fonts because they have plain endings, and appear blockier that serif fonts. They do not have little feet and embellishments on the tips and base of each letter. Sans serif are not very popular; one of the reasons been is their lack of readability. In print, sans serif fonts are often used as headline font because of legibility and serif fonts used for the body of the text.

Example of sans serif fonts:

I f i

Sans serif fonts include , , Tahoma and Trebuchet MS. Fonts such as

Verdana, Tahoma, and Trebuchet were developed specifically for use in electronic media, and are now quite commonly used.

Example of sans serif fonts:

Arial (AaBbCc...FfGg)

Verdana (AaBbCc...FfGg)

Tahoma (AaBbCc...FfGg)

Trebuchet MS (AaBbCc...FfGg)

Fonts and ADA compliance

Fonts can also affect how screen readers that disabilities work. Care should be taken to avoid fonts with blinking and moving text as they makes reading difficult for people with attention deficit or cognitive disabilities. For ADA compliance fonts should be;

 easily read on computer monitors - research has shown that sans serif

fonts are more easily read on computer monitors than serif fonts.

 Background/font color could cause difficulty in reading - black text on

white paper is recommended.  Using different type of font is not recommended as it can clutter the

document and make it more confusing - use only one font type.

 Scalability of font size is recommended for blind/low vision.

How fonts can be use with text/images

Fonts can be used around or with images to reinforce a point and to make the documents more pleasing. Below is an illustration of the use of text box, wrapped text with clip art.

Wingdings and

Symbols are two t

of the best-kept

secrets fonts. Both

fonts contain a

variety of special

characters that can

be inserted into a

document through the Insert command. These fonts are scaleable to any point size, enabling you to create some truly unusual documents. Wrapped text, text box and highlighted text arrows can also be used to make documents more effective.

References

Online Documents

W3C Recommendation (2008) . The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Retrieved from http://go.dmacc.edu/online/pages/adacompliance.aspx

Online Articles

Fonts (2013). Retrieved from http://webaim.org/techniques/fonts

Mayaniki (2011). The most common type of fonts. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com