RE: Size 10 Font in User Guides Acceptable for Body Text?

[kathleen -at- writefortheuser -dot- com]

Your suggestions are great, Geoff!

I'll record them for the future (when I might have some input :-).

Thanks,

Kathleen


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Size 10 Font in User Guides Acceptable for Body Text?
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
Date: Fri, March 07, 2008 11:08 am
To: techwr-l List <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>,  "Ronquillo,  Michael"
<mronquillo -at- equitrac -dot- com>

Michael Ronquillo wondered: <<Is a size 10 font in user guides 
acceptable for body text? I was taught that anything below size 12 is 
too small.>>

First off, the question isn't meaningful unless you specify the font. 
Font size is not an absolute parameter; it is defined by the 
characteristics of the font itself; it's commonly measured from the 
top of the ascenders to the bottom of the descenders, and how a size 
is perceived also interacts strongly with the x-height (the height of 
the lower-case x in that font). Type 12-point Arial beside 12-point 
Times New Roman and you'll see what I mean: radically different 
perceived sizes. The Arial will appear heading-size to many readers, 
whereas the Times may be comfortable or feel only slightly too large 
for body text.

<<These guides are released to the public through online. I 
personally think it's too small and hard on the eyes, but is it 
alright?>>

For online information, which will be read primarily on the computer, 
you should generally not be hard-coding your font sizes. Possibly the 
greatest single advantage of online information is that it allows 
people to choose a typeface and type size that work for their 
specific eyes -- and fonts that work well for one person may be 
anathema to another person. (My wife uses type that is about half the 
size I can read comfortably. We've agreed to disagree over this. <g>)

For information that will be distributed online, but then printed and 
read on paper, it's always better to err on the size of caution and 
choose a slightly larger font. That's doubly true for an audience 
that includes a large proportion of older readers. (Me, for instance. 
<g>) There's no one perfect size for everyone, so you'll have to do a 
bit of experimenting to find a size that works well for your 
audience. If you can't talk to the real audience, choose a dozen 
people in your company with ages ranging form recent graduates (early 
20s) to older folks (50s and up) and ask them their opinions of the 
readability of four or five type samples. For example, present the 
same information at 10, 10.5, 11, 11.5, and 12 points and ask them to 
choose both their preferred size and their comfort zone (range of 
acceptable sizes).

When I've done this, I've always found that most of the older folks 
preferred the larger type, but were willing to accept an intermediate 
size, whereas the younger folks preferred smaller type, but were 
again willing to accept an intermediate size. Some older folks will 
prefer small type, some younger folks will prefer large type, but on 
the whole, you'll find a "sweet spot" in the middle where both sets 
of preferences overlap. For an investment of half an hour of your 
time, you'll end up with a good first estimate of an appropriate type 
size.


----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
--------------------------------------------------
***Now available*** _Effective onscreen editing_
(http://www.geoff-hart.com/home/onscreen-book.htm)


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