4 Basic Rules of Using Fonts Properly in a Technical Document
As a technical writer, you should be aware of certain basics about fonts and some basic rules to observe in your documents.
The most basic distinction about fonts is whether they have a “serif” or not. That’s why font families are split into two major categories: Serif and Non-Serif fonts.
A serif is a small tail- or wedge-like appendage that extends outward from the end fo a letter or symbol. “Times Roman,” for example, is a famous serif font and “Arial” is an equally famous non-serif font.
RECOMMENDED RULES of font selection for technical writers:
RULE 1) Select your headlines from NON-SERIF fonts (like Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, Futura, Optima) and your body text from SERIF fonts (like Roman, Times Roman, Times New Roman, Georgia, Bookman).
RULE 2) ITALIC is designed to attract attention to itself by virtue of being hard to read. That’s why, in a block of readable text, it makes sense to emphasize a word or a phrase by printing it in Italic.
However, some authors print whole web or print pages in Italic! That defies the whole purpose of the Italic style…
