Bold, Italics, etc.

Subject: Bold, Italics, etc.
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- AXIONET -dot- COM>
Date: Sun, 2 Nov 1997 21:48:22 -0500

John Prince <prince1 -at- WEBTV -dot- NET> wrote:

>Now, I do have a question about dialog boxes. Do you guys >write the name of a dialog box in bold or italics? Or do you >simply write it in plain text? I prefer to write them in >bold, BUT...sometimes when you have other words in bold >(actions) and you write the dialog boxes in bold, in the same >sentence, it's seems a bit too much.

That's the trouble with bold weights - they can call so much attention
to themselves that they overwhelm everything else on the page. The
result is not only an aesthetic disaster, but less readability.

I prefer not to use bold very often. Often, serifs are dark enough in
regular or demi-bold weights. And, when they might be used in the text,
I prefer other alternatives, including:

a.) small caps
b.) the sans serif I use for the heading at a size compatible with the
serif body text
c.) nothing at all

The last alternative is the one I currently favor. Typing "The List
Detail dialogue box opens" gets a little tedious, but feedback suggests
that customers prefer it to having to remember which typographical
convention refers to which features.

--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
(bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com) (604) 421-7189 or 688-6211 L. 290
http://www.axionet.com/outlawcommunications (Updated 18 October, 1997)
Job Bank Team, STC Canada West Coast Chapter
http://www.stc.org/region7/cwc/www/job_bank.html

"Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes,
when you fall, you fly."
--Neil Gaiman, "Fear of Falling"


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