Re: Fonts

["Pro TechWriter" <pro -dot- techwriter -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Hello:

I can suggest some resources for you to look into. I found a study not too
long ago that found Verdana was best for most users (especially us over-50
folks), but other studies kind of cancel that out. However, Microsoft's
fonts that were designed *especially* for on screen use rate better
generally than older, non screen fonts. They are Verdana, Tahoma, Trebuchet,
Arial, and Georgia. All of those fonts are good in printed material as well.
If you really prefer a serif font in printed material, Georgia would be a
good choice. Verdana is used a lot in print documentation now, though, and
if I remember correctly, in Europe, it is more common to see sans-serif
fonts in printed material than it is in the US. Ask your audience :-)

Anyway, here are some useful links.

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/default.mspx - Microsoft's typography
page with information about fonts designed for on-screen use and more.

http://www.usability.gov/pdfs/chapter11.pdf  - This chapter refers to fonts,
colors, and font sizes to use. The entire book is available, and is GREAT to
review for any kind of online development. Just back up to the pdfs
directory to get the whole thing http://www.usability.gov/pdfs

http://www.stcsig.org/usability/index.html - The STC Usability SIG. There is
a lot of material here, and I think this is where I found the link to the
study online.




On 3/14/07, Roger Bell <RBell -at- vcgsoftware -dot- com> wrote:
>
>
> We are evaluating fonts for both print and online documentation that are
> supported widely outside the United States and have good readability.
> The fonts for print documentation also must be able to be embedded in
> PDF files.
>
> --
> PT
> pro -dot- techwriter -at- gmail -dot- com
> I'm a Technical Technical Writer!
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