Re: Font Selection Methodology

[Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- jci -dot- com]

>"Size" is only part of the problem. (Size of what, by the way? x-height?
>Leading? Line length? They are all interdependant.)

If you mean what you say there, then you've you've answered your own
question. ;{>}

>What do you mean by "readable"? Readable like
>a highway sign? Readable like a book cover? Readable
>like a newspaper headline? Readable like body
>text? Readable like the stock exchange listings
>in the back of the newspaper?

Readable like what it is. Is it a book cover? Is it a highway sign? Is it a
headline? Are you saying you don't know up front what it is you're writing?
That knowing what you're working on is some sort of complex, complicated
decision, requiring more than 2 seconds of thought? Get real.

>This is not about "the perfect font." What it's about is that
>if you want a document to work, you need to design it to work.

And after a few minutes of that, just how much more of practical worth do
you gain by spending more time? As opposed to say, spending an extra hour
or two getting the words right in a complex step-by-step? That's what I'm
talking about, Michael. If the time is there, by all means spend it on the
finer points of design. But spend it first where you'll get a better
return. Which regret is easier to live with? 1) "If I'd had a little more
time I could have changed the color scheme for the subhead heirarchy to
call them out better" or 2) "If I'd had a little more time I could have
rewritten that twelve-step procedure into a seven-step one, and got rid of
the ambiguity surrounding the on/off switch description." Yes, in a perfect
world we'd have enough time to do both; but when we don't, something's
gotta give.

>> Dreck, typeset elegantly and published perfectly, is still dreck.
>
>Surely that doesn't require stating in this group.

Michael, from long experience I've discovered *everything* requires stating
in this group. Even, apparently, what it is you're supposed to be writing.
;{>}

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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