Re: Website readability

Subject: Re: Website readability
From: "Stephen D. Murphy" <sdmurphy -at- SHEPARD-PATTERSON -dot- COM>
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 10:27:45 -0400

Doug, I was just reading through the electronic publishing guide that
Adobe publishes (and distributes on many of its CD-ROMs as a PDF). They
provide several suggestions:

* Use a sans-serif font for on-screen display (contrary to the
popular wisdom for printed material)
* Add some extra leading (line-spacing) to on-screen text (not
sure you can do much with that on the web, unless you're using PDFs)
* Make the text larger than you would for printed material

Those are the ones I remember... as for color, I think it depends on
what you have in the background. I personally like dark teals and
browns, but that is just my preference.

As for "long-scrolling pages," I think they are bad news. They take a
long time to download and are a pain to read under any circumstances.
Try to "chunk" your information into smaller pages, if possible.

Good luck!

Steve Murphy
Senior Technical Writer
Shepard-Patterson & Associates
(703) 412-5072
sdmurphy -at- shepard-patterson -dot- com
http://www.shepard-patterson.com
-------------------------------------------
Adobe Certified Expert - FrameMaker
murphus -at- idsonline -dot- com
http://www.murphus.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Douglas Max [SMTP:dmax -at- BELLATLANTIC -dot- NET]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 1998 9:34 AM
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: Website readability
>
> Does anyone know the answer to this question:
>
> "What's the best color, font (serif, or sans-serif), size for text to
> be
> easily readable on the web?" We have long scrolling pages on our
> website and I want it to be easy on our students.
>
> My webmaster thinks that a navy blue "softens" things up, but I wonder
> if black isn't better because of its greater contrast. Also, I think
> that Times Roman is easier to read than Ariel. I welcome your
> opinions
> and/or reference to any research done on this.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Doug Max
> --
>
> LR Communication Systems, Inc. http://www.LRcom.com
> 139 Dogwood Lane
> Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922-0264
> USA
>
> Training in business writing and presentation skills. Seminars,
> distance
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> options.
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>
> E-mail for business: mail -at- LRcom -dot- com
> personal: dmax -at- bellatlantic -dot- net
>
> voice @ Work (908) 464-1231
> fax (908) 464-1350
>
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