Re: Typeface for print and online documentation

["Lisa Bronson" <Lisa -dot- Bronson -at- ipaper -dot- com>]

Do any of you have data on what typefaces are easier to read in print vs.
online documentation?


As far as print documentation:  when I was in college at Mankato State
University, we were taught that serif fonts, like Times, were proven
through extensive research to be easier to read.

However, I did some casual studies on my own in my first tech writing job
(after I tried to get them to change from Arial to Times, based on that
research, and got shot down... ha ha), and almost everyone I asked
preferred sans serif fonts, like Arial, over serif fonts.  One woman who
worked in assembly said that the serif fonts were too light, and that made
them more difficult to read.   I asked one of my professors about these
results, and she said that the research we were taught about was old (20
years at the time, 25 now).  Things change, I guess.  :-)

btw, the one person I asked who liked the serif font better didn't have an
opinion, per se, but actually quoted the old research mentioned above.
*wink*

Lisa Bronson
Associate Technical Writer
Evergreen Packaging Equipment
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
319-399-3239





^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems 
Available 4/30/01 at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

Sponsored by DigiPub Solutions Corp, producers of PDF 2001 Conference East, 
June 4-6, Baltimore, MD. Now covering Acrobat 5. Early registration deadline 
April 27. http://www.pdfconference.com. 

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.