Re: Your typographic conventions and justification for

[Mike Starr <mike -at- writestarr -dot- com>]

Given that I'm often the only technical writer associated with a client (either freelance or through an agency), I've developed my own personal style approach for typographical conventions in documentation for that client.

I'll do an analysis of the client's logo on their website and in their other publications. I'll try to find a predominant color used in that logo and use that color for emphasized typographic elements, e.g., headings, header/footer text, emphasized text, hypertext and cross-reference text. One consideration is that the color selected must have sufficient contrast when displayed against a white background (light blue on white just doesn't work). So, for example, the predominant color in a client's logo may have RGB values of 141 111 195. I'll assign that color to the style definition of all those typographic elements listed above. I do this to extend the corporate branding in a modest way to the documentation.

For body text, I use Times New Roman, for heading paragraph styles I use Arial Black (with font color applied), for emphasized text (Emphasis character style), I'll use Arial Bold (with font color applied). For Hypertext links, I'll use Arial Bold (with font color applied as well as underlining). For cross-reference links, I'll use Arial Bold (with font color applied as well as dotted underlining to distinguish it from a hypertext link). For headers and footers, I'll use Arial Bold, one or two points smaller than body text (with font color applied and a ruling line below for headers or a ruling line above for footers. I set the color of the ruling line the same as the font color.

I typically do not use italic text for emphasis as I feel it tends to have a *de-emphasizing* effect.

I'll typically use Courier New (bolded) for code samples.

All dialog box elements are capitalized the same as they're shown in the user interface. I have been known to threaten the programming staff with my "Official Technical Writer's 2x4Â" to get them to correct stupid capitalization practices <grin>.
-- 
Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
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Nancy Allison wrote:
> What fonts do you use in your documents (beyond the usual body text, header, footer, and heading fonts)? Our body text font (for PDFs) is Times New Roman. We document hardware and user interfaces, but not internal software programming, so beyond giving installation and upgrade instructions, we don't deal with code-related terms.
> 
> We use these typographical conventions:
> 
> --Bold Arial -- anything the user selects or clicks, or any text the user enters. Also all Note, Caution, and Warning text (which is set off by leading above and below and marked by an icon to the left. In addition, Warnings are set off by a black box.)
> 
> --Italic -- introducing new terms, titles of publications.
> 
> --Monospace -- system error messages and prompts, (and code samples, which are extremely rare for us).
> 
> You see that we keep alternate typefaces to a minimum.
> 
> We capitalize the titles of UI windows, dialog boxes, prompts, etc. but do not use a different typeface. Oh, dear, I see that the Microsoft Manual of Style 3rd edition recommends bolding the names of dialog boxes. I don't see a need for it -- isn't the capitalization enough of a hint?
> 
> I remember documents, at other clients, that had to have a lengthy table at the front explaining the significance of 5 or 6 typefaces. It seemed to be unduly complicated and we doubted that it was helpful for readers. In the years since, I have observed a trend toward simplification, which I support.
> 
> I am preparing for a discussion of this issue and wondered what other tech writers do. What do you do, and what reference books or standards do you rely on? Can you recommend any other books or standards for me to take a look at?
> 
> 
> 
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Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author, 
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