Difference between revisions of "Documentation/Writer for Students/Fonts"

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Fonts play an important role in making the text more legible. There are millions of them around, but two main categories always come up as alternatives for Text Body. On the one hand there are the ''Serif Fonts'', then you have the ''Sans Serif Fonts''.
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The right choice of fonts is important to increase overall legibility. There are thousands of fonts out there, but one main category are the fontswith serifs such as Times New Roman.
  
The Serif Fonts are characterized by semi-structural details at the tips of the strokes. You could name these “base lines” or pedestals, most of them coinciding with the base line of writing as in the case of the letter “i”, a few being higher up as in “w” and another set placed below the line as for letter “p”. These have the effect of giving the letter some optical stability on the horizontal axis and also reducing the gaps ''between'' letters, thus making them to a degree “fuse together” so words become more compact. The overall effect is to increase reading speed as you tend to seize the word as a complete unit, your eyes jumping from one word to the next, rather than from one letter to the next. So, for Text Body, ''do'' use a ''Serif'' font such as ''Times New Roman'' or ''Garamond''.
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For your '''Text body''' you should use a font with serifs. Serifs are the horizontal stroke at the tips of the letters, mostly coinciding with the base line as in the letters “i” or “m”, a few lying above as in “w” and another set placed below the line as for letters “p” and “q”. A few characters such as “o” have no serifs. These serifs give the letters stability on the horizontal axis and also reduce the gaps between letters, so that words gain a more compact appearance. This in turn increases reading speed as you tend to seize complete words as units and not as loose collections of letters.
  
For large titles, posters, flyers etc. on the other hand, fonts without serifs such as '''Arial''' or '''Futura''' (Futura comes in all sorts of varieties) are very elegant.
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For main titles, posters, flyers etc., whose object it is precisely to attract more attention, fonts without serifs such as '''Arial''' are very suitable. Here the object is precisely to slow down the pace of reading so as to attract more attention.
  
 
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Taking a closer look at our two Serif Fonts, ''Times New Roman'' and ''Garamond'', you will notice that the latter is somewhat finer and rounder in overall shape. This increases the legibility even more. A page full of Garamond text will appear lighter than one full of Times.
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There exists a great variety of fonts within each. Futura Lt BT for example is lighter than Arial and marries well with Garamond which in turn islighter than Times.  
  
On the whole avoid using different fonts. In fact you can stick to just one font for the whole text and use Garamond even for Headings – just varying size and Typeface (Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic). If you do mix Serifs with Sans Serifs, aim at choosing good combinations: Garamond harmonizes better with a Futura Light than with Arial being of similar proportions and similar weight.
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Philosophically speaking you could say that Garamond has been stripped of any unnecessary fat, being reduced to the ‘mathematical minimum’ necessary for rapid reading. It is also more rounded than Times giving it a less aggressive appearance. And in spite of its slightly reduced dimensions at same font size it remains very legible.Of course you need to have these fonts installed on your computer. Some of them are unfortunately quite expensive.
  
If you are using a page format of A4, you will probably want a font size of 12pt (or 11pt in case you do opt for Arial, which is by nature larger). If producing a pamphlet size A5 you can reduce the font size down to 11pt or even 10.5pt. The better the printer and the quality of paper, the more you can reduce the font size without the text becoming illegible.
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On the whole avoid using different fonts. Instead just vary font size and typeface.
  
Some teachers – at least over here in Germany – insist on very detailed specifications so as to force students to produce only a certain amount of text. Instead of saying: “Please write 10,000 characters plus/minus five percent, they specify font size, font type, margins and number of pages. This is really an unfortunate misuse of formatting for control purposes.
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If you’re using a page format of A4, you will probably want a font size of 12pt (or 11pt in case you do opt for Arial, which is by nature larger). If producing a pamphlet size A5 you can reduce the font size down to 11pt or even 10.5pt. The better the printer and the quality of paper, the more you can reduce the font size without the text becoming illegible.
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{{Note|Sometimes lecturers give very detailed specifications as to number of pages, font type, font size, line spacing, margins and so on not so much for optical reasons but to control the overall amount of text produced. It would be simpler if they said: “Please limit yourself to 10,000 characters plus/minus five percent.” See section 44 on Document Infos.}}
 
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Latest revision as of 14:51, 7 July 2018



The right choice of fonts is important to increase overall legibility. There are thousands of fonts out there, but one main category are the fontswith serifs such as Times New Roman.

For your Text body you should use a font with serifs. Serifs are the horizontal stroke at the tips of the letters, mostly coinciding with the base line as in the letters “i” or “m”, a few lying above as in “w” and another set placed below the line as for letters “p” and “q”. A few characters such as “o” have no serifs. These serifs give the letters stability on the horizontal axis and also reduce the gaps between letters, so that words gain a more compact appearance. This in turn increases reading speed as you tend to seize complete words as units and not as loose collections of letters.

For main titles, posters, flyers etc., whose object it is precisely to attract more attention, fonts without serifs such as Arial are very suitable. Here the object is precisely to slow down the pace of reading so as to attract more attention.

Wfs026a-fonts.png

There exists a great variety of fonts within each. Futura Lt BT for example is lighter than Arial and marries well with Garamond which in turn islighter than Times.

Philosophically speaking you could say that Garamond has been stripped of any unnecessary fat, being reduced to the ‘mathematical minimum’ necessary for rapid reading. It is also more rounded than Times giving it a less aggressive appearance. And in spite of its slightly reduced dimensions at same font size it remains very legible.Of course you need to have these fonts installed on your computer. Some of them are unfortunately quite expensive.

On the whole avoid using different fonts. Instead just vary font size and typeface.

If you’re using a page format of A4, you will probably want a font size of 12pt (or 11pt in case you do opt for Arial, which is by nature larger). If producing a pamphlet size A5 you can reduce the font size down to 11pt or even 10.5pt. The better the printer and the quality of paper, the more you can reduce the font size without the text becoming illegible.

Documentation note.png Sometimes lecturers give very detailed specifications as to number of pages, font type, font size, line spacing, margins and so on not so much for optical reasons but to control the overall amount of text produced. It would be simpler if they said: “Please limit yourself to 10,000 characters plus/minus five percent.” See section 44 on Document Infos.




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