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Subject:Re: Best Font for Screen and Print From:Steve Pendleton <SPendlet -at- COGNEX -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 6 Aug 1998 10:29:29 -0700
>Question: What font straddles the needs for on-screen
>viewing and printing to paper?
>Right now, I'm torn between Palatino and Garamond for
>normal text. The folks in the office like the look of Palatino
>best, but I'm concerned about it on the screen. Whaddya think?
Your concerns have great merit. Palatino and Garamond look
gorgeous when printed at 300 DPI or better on a laserprinter;
they're graceful, refined, and sophisticated. Unfortunately, they're
likely to be difficult or impossible to read on a monitor. The same
concern applies to essentially all serif fonts.
For dual-use documents, I now use 100% Helvetica, mostly
12-over-14 for body text. Acrobat is disguised PostScript,
so use PS fonts exclusively. Yes, TrueType fonts like Ariel
are replaced by PS fonts whenever you print to
a PS device, but it's safer and simpler to stick with
PS when dealing with Adobe. Since end-user printing is
important for online books, further limit choice to the standard
fonts present on all PS printers. Since on-screen legibility is
important, even-further limit body text to sans-serif. These
rules-of-thumb practically compel Helvetica.
(Try it; you'll like it. It has a minimalist, low-key charm of its
own, especially in contexts where the controlling virtues are
simplicity and terseness.)
As for monitors, a suggested lowest common denominator
in a general office context might be 17", 800x600, 256 color.
It does no harm to avoid heavy reliance on effects that might
fail on 15" monochrome.
Steve Pendleton
Technical Writer DeLuxe
Cognex, Acumen Products Group
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain"
