Re: Font usage in manuals

[Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM>]

Here are the rules I go by:

1. Don't mess with the basic rules.  In running text, use ordinary
   punctuation and emphasis conventions (periods go inside the
   quotes, use italics for emphasis, and so on).  Messing with the
   basic rules annoys those readers who notice such things.  Running
   text, even in technical writing, is still running text.

2. Use a separate font for technical mumbo-jumbo.  For example, I
   typically use Adobe Sabon (and old-style font with the virtues
   of Times Roman without the ugliness) for my book font, and Helvetica
   for signal names, register names, assembly-language mnenonics,
   high-level-language keywords, menu items, etc.  This differentiates the
   jargony semi-words from real English in a completely unambiguous
   way and eliminates any need to put the terms in quotes (thus avoiding
   the temptation to mess with the basic rules).

3. Make your separate font a contrasting font.  If your book font is
   a serif font (and it should be), your contrasting font should be a
   sans-serif font.  Don't use bold -- it violates rule #4.  Don't
   use Courier -- mixing serif fonts on a line is not only hideous
   (Courier looks like Times' mutant offspring when they're on the
   same line), but using fonts with ANY similarity to one another makes
   it too easy to miss the transition.

4. Pay attention to good book-design principles.  You don't want to
   draw the eye to low-level things.  Boldface draws the eye strongly;
   italics don't.  That's why italics are used for emphasis in running
   text -- you don't want people to skip two paragraphs because their eye
   was attracted to the emphasized passage; you want them to get there
   sequentially.  In-line emphasis should be less eye-catching than the
   lowest-level heading.  Each level of heading should be more eye-catching
   than the one below.  Bullets, like emphasis, should be less eye-catching
   than the lowest-level headings.

5. Boldface doesn't xerox well; the difference between the book face and
   its bolface tends to vanish when photocopied or faxed.  Italics
   retain their identity, as will a contrasting font.  Thus, don't
   encode vital information into whether a font is bold or not.

Most of the issues that have been discussed here recently vanish if
you just use the second font, and leave everything else the way the
style guides specify.

        -- Robert
--
Robert Plamondon, President/Managing Editor, High-Tech Technical Writing, Inc.
36475 Norton Creek Road * Blodgett * Oregon * 97326
robert -at- plamondon -dot- com * (541) 453-5841 * Fax: (541) 453-4139