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Subject:Re: Readability and point size From:Don Smith <dsmith -at- ACCESSBEYOND -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 15 Jan 1997 07:19:42 EST
Jill -
Your thoughts follow ours. We have been using 9.5 points with New
Century School Book font for our manuals during the last 3 or 4 years.
This is with a page size of 5.5 by 8.5 inches. We have not receieved
any complaints of "the printing is too small", up to now.
For larger (8.5 x 11) manuals we are using (not my idea!) 12 points.
Very best regards,
Don Smith
Sr. Technical Writer
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Readability and point size
Author: Jill Burgchardt <jburgcha -at- PESTILENCE -dot- FTC -dot- NRCS -dot- USDA -dot- GOV> at INTERNET
Date: 1/14/97 5:32 PM
Hello,
Does anyone have any statistics or know of any articles regarding use of
different point
sizes for readability? Specifically, is bigger always better (hardcopy
documentation)?
The 12-point standard proposed for body text on our documentation seems to waste
a lot of space. Since our audience is primarily scientists, we think they'd be
just as
comfortable if we dropped it to 9 or 10 point. (We assume they read plenty of
technical
stuff at smaller font sizes.)
Does any research support our perspective? Please send your responses to
jburgcha -at- pestilence -dot- ftc -dot- nrcs -dot- usda -dot- gov
TIA,
Jill Burgchardt
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