Hot answers tagged font
46
This question probably belongs on Graphic Design.
That said:
Good visual design is about a lot of things, one of them being that it should be appropriate for the particular message one is trying to communicate.
Comic Sans was designed for MS Bob, a failed UI concept of MS's back in the day. It was created to be informal, but legible at low-resolution. MS ...
25
It really depends on a lot of factors such as what is the frequency of certain characters that you expect and what fonts are available to you.
I did a rudimentary by creating a program that iterated through all of the available fonts I had installed on my Windows box at the time and printed a line containing each printable ascii character on to the screen ...
21
Comic sans is a good font, if used correctly. It's for comic book situations like below. (usually all CAPS) It's not meant for emails or web page text. My suggestion is to show them the proper use of the font and ask them if they want comic book characters commissioned for the site. Then it will look correct.
Sometimes, trebuchet MS or Tahoma will make ...
16
I don't deal in print, but I have read quite a bit about fonts in the past.
Recent studies have shown that serif vs. sans serif on a computer display is not really what affects readability, even at lower resolutions. Print, however, is a different matter. The studies consistently indicate that in print, serif based fonts are easier to read. That said, some ...
16
It depends. It depends mainly on how users will be locating the data they are interested in.
Numerical Stats in a Row
If the page is repeating the same stats groupings in the same order, then positional memory will be used, and the numbers themselves also cue the reader in to positioning - Best bowling 5/45 has a different form to Economy Rate 1.51 and ...
13
The biggest problem is the visual emphasis lost by the bright colour (in this case green). You can say "ignore the other colour", but it's the biggest problem with the readability! So it's hard to successfully improve the readability without working on that colour.
The menu on the left is very high contrast, causing it to distract the reader from the main ...
11
Like any normal web design, it's worth staying away from pixel sizes so if a user really needs larger text they can still use your site.
Unless you're targetting a specific group of phones that you can test, it's best to let the OS and browser handle the size. font-size: medium; should be fine for content, and then you should be able to make em based ...
11
Considering your content is like most where the user will be reading the data more often.
For example consider where your eyes go first:
-
Bowling Pins: 32
and now the opposite:
-
Bowling Pins: 32
-
They user will come to the page for the first time and: See the bold data, than look at what they represent.
The user will return to look up the data ...
10
Headings may use the same font as the body, but they are not required to. Plenty of great typography uses different fonts for the body and headings. In fact, there are fonts specifically designed for each purpose -- "text" faces for the body, and "display" faces for headings, titles, posters, and so on.
If you have a single good font, it is acceptable, ...
10
This is Futura.
Here's a screenshot of the same text in Futura on my computer: http://i.stack.imgur.com/ZETTG.png
Some of the clues that indicate it's the same font:
The perfectly round o
The point at the bottom of the v
The flat angles at the top and bottom of the b's vertical bar (and other similar vertical bars, like on the n and the r)
The perfectly ...
10
Having your cursor slanted would be a UX improvement over a permanently vertical cursor. Many word processors already do this. Here are some examples from MS Word:
It gives additional feedback to a user that the text they enter will be italic, and it is visually less confusing when selecting text. At the same time, I can't think of any reason that it ...
8
I'd go minimalist with this.
Start with a single font family. That is, a combination of bold, condensed etc. For example of what I mean see PT Sans from the Google Font API.
If you plan to add any more, then justify it explicitly. That is, convince yourself that there is not only an asethetic, but a functional reason for the additional font.
Obvious ...
8
MIL-STD 1472F Section 5.14.3.5 has a pretty good section on displaying tables in a user interface, although it could stand some updating for modern GUIs. Here are some of the standards, along with my interpretation marked with a bullet for GUIs:
5.14.3.5.4 Titles. For a table that takes up multiple pages, column headers shall be on every page for table.
...
8
Coda
Sometimes a smaller font is a good way out of a tight spot. In this particular case, at least for the part of the problem shown, there is a better solution which is both clearer, and takes half the space, like so:
I'm using a large enough font, 18pt Tahoma (open image in new tab to view full size), that the negative letter-space is OK.
8
There are surprisingly few actual studies on which fonts work better for specific occasions, so you're going to have to take a more practical pragmatic approach and decide on the site content and audience first, then take the various merits of your font choices into consideration after you've determined the site usage.
For example, yes, Verdana is a more ...
8
Yes, mixing different fonts and typography is perfectly fine, so long as it is done tastefully. My approach to mixing different fonts is to give each font a purpose or a voice. The App would have a particular voice and the fonts would correspond to its personality. While things requiring input from the user would have a different font/voice. Using that as a ...
8
I believe the users that didn't want to read much will find that the buttons are not obvious enough and the primary button stands out and it catches the attention.
I can suggest two options:
Create a subtle button for each link like the one shown in the image below
Use the same arrow as the other button and highlight it so the user can quickly identify ...
7
Let me preface my answer by saying the evidence is all over the place on this topic. It seems prudent to suggest that choice of typeface has a relatively minor effect on reading speed or legibility given our current understanding.
There's a section on the Wikipedia page for Serif that seems to directly address the question:
Serifed fonts are widely used ...
7
First of all 13px Arial isn't a standard. Arial is commonly used for, I guess, couple of reason:
It's decent when it comes to readability (though people tend to
disagree, as in this Typophile discussion)
It's plain sans-serif font treated often as wider spread equivalent of
Helvetica
It's quite old (early 80s)
It's packaged on Windows since early 90s and ...
6
@Nick Fine - did you read this page? http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/visual-audio-contrast-contrast.html
"Text that is larger and has wider
character strokes is easier to read at
lower contrast. The contrast
requirement for larger text is
therefore lower. This allows authors
to use a wider range of color choices
for large text, ...
6
Right now, your interface is very bad. Here's what's wrong:
It's absolutely unclear how to change one's status.
The clickable link in the table isn't differentiated from the rest of the content and there's no expectation of what will happen when it's clicked.
Time selector is sliders instead of simple numeric input.
Message length limit isn't specified ...
6
I can't provide a definitive answer, but I can provide a little logic.
When viewing vertical text, you are essentially viewing normal text in an unusual situation, so in order to ease the situation it seems like a good idea to remove typographical cues that make reading in an awkward situation even harder.
So sans-serif would be a logic first step to ...
6
I think a user using an app like that (text rendered with no accents when accents are expected) would find it to be very unprofessional.
As the accents play an important role in the language, leaving them out could:
Cause users to just passed off as bad grammar.
Change the meaning of what you are trying to convey.
Look like gibberish.
As for languages ...
6
The question actually has two aspects:
Use two different highlighting styles for different words (resulting in three types of writing: normal, bold and italic)
Double highlight which allows highlighting parts of highlighted words (resulting in four different types of writing: normal, bold, italic, bolditalic)
A biology student's flashcard for "Daisy" ...
5
Whenever I see the word "Always" in a question like this, I sigh deeply and roll my eyes.
Seriously though, what you want to achieve is that the headings are clearly perceived as headings, but that the reader is not jarred out of the content and into seeing the form "...whoa, look at that font change!". Whatever you do is fine as long as this balance is ...
5
Using identifont.com this looks like Futura. Possibly Futura, Futura (BT) or Futura (URW).
Here's a direct link to the font search I performed: http://www.identifont.com/identify?16+november+1IU+N2Q+97+23+9M+31+F2U+F+9D+7UX+NQE+PAF+G39+9J+9Z+L+M
The Identify Result section on the left shows the other two Futura options lower on the list.
5
Like most design decisions context is key.
If this is a dashboard like situation where a visual hierarchy needs to be formed, then my first guess would be to bold the data. Like jonshariat mentioned, this will make it easier for users to scan the page and find the data they are looking for. On the other hand, if this is in a table or in an area where ...
5
I think it's very important to differentiate code text from normal text as it is very much another language, and it's standard proceedure to differentiate text written in other languages--usually using italics.
A good example of sites using code differentiation is the Stack Exchange family, as you may have noticed it's very important to differentiate code ...
5
If you're looking for a decent literature review of fonts and readability, a good place to start looking is this article by Alex Poole, which is ultimately concerned with readability of serif vs. sans-serif typefaces. However, it is heavily sourced and there are a few references that deal with font sizes and readability.
5
Setting aside my type nerd instincts and just addressing the UX implications of the choice:
Verdana was designed as a screen font, and so is very well hinted at small pixel sizes on 96 DPI screens. It also has an extremely high x-height, which improves its readability especially at small sizes. It is infinitely more legible for screen use than Arial.
Arial ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
