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Subject:Font choice for Win3.1 online help From:geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA Date:Fri, 20 Jun 1997 15:02:15 -0500
A while back, I asked for summaries of which fonts people
are using for online help under Win3.1, and why they made
that choice.
In general, people use san serif fonts for most documents
because of improved legibility compared with serif fonts on
typical monitors. Familiarity with the online fonts most
people encounter (e.g., in Microsoft online help) is a
strong plus too, because it better matches reader/viewer
expectations.
MS San Serif and Arial were recommended (Arial in 6 out of
6 cases), with body text set at no less than 10 point, and
headers at around 12 to 13 point. MS Verdana also was
mentioned frequently, particularly since it's a relatively
fat, readable font that helps you to fit less text per
line (always a good idea online) and it was designed
specifically for online use. Helvetica is another choice,
particularly for cross-platform help, but was less favored
for Win3.1. Arial and Verdana both also work well in
print, an important consideration in some cases if you
expect users to print out the online docs. In print, MS
Sans Serif doesn't work as well.
Thanks to Bill Bledsoe, Malcolm Cawood, Kim Cramer, Guy
Ivie, Bruce Johnson, Jane Torpie for contributing.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.
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