Font sizes

[David Neeley]

From: Gail Former <gail.former at accenttech.com>

"Back in the days when print was the primary medium used, fonts were
designed to be used in specific size ranges, and their characteristics
would be slightly different depending on the optimum size for which they
were designed. "

Actually, in the days when fonts were exclusively used in print, a
"font" was quite often subtley different as the size changed. There
was no "one design fits all" for them. Similarly, italic sets were
purpose designed as companions to the non-italic versions rather than
early electronic fonts in which the italics were simply skewed a bit
electronically.

"The x-heights, descenders and ascenders, spacing between
letters, and whether they were designed with or without ink traps would
determine their readability at given sizes. With the advent of the web,
fonts have been designed specifically for electronic applications. Be
sure you are using the appropriate type of font for your application."

Sorry, but with the plethora of choices today we cannot be quite so
specific. As a rule, if you are designing for electronic presentation
you are either stuck with a very narrow choice of fonts or you must
include your font in some way--such as embedding it in an Acrobat
document.

In addition, we have documents that we simply do not know whether they
will be printed or whether they will be nearly exclusively used as
electronic.

For web presentation, it may make sense simply to use the default the
user is happy with rather than trying to be particularly picky about
presentation and the font selection...and I say that as a confirmed
"font freak" myself!

David