Ms Office Tune Up

The Case:
With windows you already have a standard series of fonts that you might find probably overused. And using always the default fonts will indeed make our documents look boring. But since thousands of different fonts exist at the moment, how to decide which one to choose?

Some would argue that the election of the typography for a document is largely determined by personal tastes (and fashions). However, there is a consensus on the basic points.

Tune Up:

First of all, I do not want to exaggerate the importance of typography. If you are interested about it, you can read a fine discussion about Typography by specialists in the field at the Microsoft typography site.

We can divide fonts into two groups: a serif font and a sans serif font. Times New Roman or Bok Antiqua are some example of serif fonts; they have lines at the ends of letter strokes, usually parallel or at the right angles to the base line of text. This is the opposite of Arial and Lucinda Sans, which are some example of sans serif fonts.

Serif is on the left, sans serif is on the right.

- Fonts for Printed Document -

Some people believe that a serif font is easier to read in printed text. But I guess that is just because most early-grade reading text were printed with serif fonts. Traditionally, the letters with serifs are indeed considered the most legible. But not today.

The main guideline we should consider is the legibility and readability. For shorter text blocks we can use almost any font we want. But for longer documents, the ornamental fonts or calligraphic typefaces shouldn’t be used. Since they would immediately cause some eye strain.

As a guideline, use ornamental fonts or calligraphic typefaces for title, captions, summaries and other short text block. And then you can use a sans for the body text. If you are creating document with long block of text (i.e articles) never mix too many different fonts in each page. Your document page would look more like a fonts catalogue.

You should have noticed that the size of fonts in Microsoft Word can be deceptive. A 9-point verdana, for example, is still readable for general printed text. I use this fonts and size quite often. But you should not expect this of other fonts. FYI, the most current size for the normal text is between the 10 and 12 points. If we design a composition with multiple narrow columns, the size can be reduced to 8 or 9 point. For the headings there are no fixed rules, but often they are specified at a 20% superior or inferior size to the text size, together with a changes of style where necessary (using bold or italics.)

- Fonts for On-Screen Reading -

Some fonts are especially designed to be seen in a computer screen. If your work will be read on-screen, sans serif generally displays better.

Forget that boring Times New Roman. You can use sans serif fonts like Verdana and Tahoma, even to replace Arial perhaps. Georgia is also can become an alternative. It has very legible cursive and some professional details. You can also use Trebuchet, a sans serif humanistic font.

With windows XP, you can dramatically improve the look of your on-screen fonts, thanks to ClearType built-in feature. ClearType is designed to enhance LCD displays, but some people see an improvement on CRT’s.

The setting is quite easy. The most easier way however is to user Microsoft online wizard to change the setting. You can also use ClearType Tuner PowerToy. Another option is to use ClearTweak, a free utility that allows you to change the contrast setting of the ClearType setting.

Did you know that you can take typing lessons to improve your documents through online college courses? Now, with online colleges, it’s easier than ever to get an online education in any field you choose.

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