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Re: Re: Font Size(s)

Subject: Re: Re: Font Size(s)
From: "Fred Ridder" <docudoc -at- hotmail -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 11:01:52 -0400


Column/page width also factors into this. You can get
away with a smaller type size if your columns are narrow.
But as the column gets wider, you get too many characters
per line and it becomes extremely hard to read, even with
generous leading.

There is no simple answer to this seemingly simple question
because there are so many design decisions that affect the
readability--not just type size.

Fred Ridder
Intel
Parsippany, NJ


From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axion -dot- net>
Subject: Re: Font Size(s)
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 11:55:40 -0700


On Mon, 2005-09-19 at 13:38 -0500, W. Kelly Oja wrote:

> Just curious of how small is too small with a print document.

The answer depends largely on the font and the amound of leading that
you use.

When a font is described as 10 points, that means that 10 points is the
height given for both the actual letter and the space around it. Since
the letters in some fonts have more
space around them than the letters in other fonts, that means that one
10 point font can look smaller than another 10 point font.

As for leading, or the space between lines, in general you can make a
font at a smaller size more readable by increasing the leading between
lines. This is a setting that you usually can't just leave to a word
processor, because most of them decrease the leading as the font size
decreases.

You need to experiment with these two factors to find an answer. My
guess is that Verdana should do relatively well at 8 points, since its
letters are relatively large. However, you should be able to improve its
readability by tinkering with the leading.

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