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Text & Fonts

Text is an important part of any website since it is through text that instruction, information and explanation are communicated. The section on colour deals with the issue of colour, but the type and size of font as well as the language used are also vital considerations.

As with colour, fonts will not always display uniformly across different computers or browsers. One way round this is to use graphic text, incorporating text boxes from Word as graphic files. However, this will involve very large file sizes that will slow download times and will make updating information very difficult. Like colours there are a number of ‘safe’ fonts that in general will display uniformly across all computers and browsers. These include: Arial, Times New Roman, Courier and Verdana. Of these, the serif fonts, Arial, Courier and Verdana are considered the easiest to read by people with literacy problems.

Fonts are measured in point sizes and there are seven different sizes of text that can be used on the web. The largest of these is 36 points and the smallest 8 points.

Font Size	Points	Code Used	Browser View
1	8pt	<font size="1">Font size 1</font>	Font size 1
2	10pt	<font size="2">Font size 2</font>	Font size 2
3	12pt	<font size="3">Font size 3</font>	Font size 3
4	14pt	<font size="4">Font size 4</font>	Font size 4
5	18pt	<font size="5">Font size 5</font>	Font size 5
6	24pt	<font size="6">Font size 6</font>	Font size 6
7	36pt	<font size="7">Font size 7</font>	Font size 7

However, the actual size of font that the user will see is also dependant on the screen resolution being used. A font will display larger on a screen of resolution 1024x768 and smaller on a resolution of 1280x1024. It is generally acknowledged that the most commonly used screen resolution is1024x768 and so adjusting your own screen resolution accordingly during the construction process should ensure that the majority of users will see the font as you do.

When writing text it is also important to consider how it will appear to your users. Most people dislike reading large amounts of text particularly if the language is complex. Some people also find reading text that is all in capitals difficult so as a general rule website designers should

1. Break text up into small sections by:

• Using a different font colour for each paragraph

• Using short sentences and paragraphs

• Inserting images between, or next to paragraphs.

2 Avoid the use of upper case text for emphasis, use bold instead.

 

 

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