Your Ph.D. in Fonts

Home Office Computing, Dec, 1999 by Helen Bradley

Looking good on paper and on the Web can be easy when you use the right typeface

KNOWING WHAT TO SAY IN MARKETING MATERIALS and business correspondence is half the battle; the other half is how to say it. Like a signature, the right font can help convey a certain message to your reader. So this month, we're offering a quick course in fonts: where to get them, how they're measured, how to mix them, and what to do--and what not to do--with them on Web pages and printed pages. You may be surprised at how much creativity is right at your own fingertips.

Name That Font Choosing fonts that work well together is made easy by classifying each font into one of four broad categories: serif, sans serif, script, and decorative. Serif fonts like Bookman have small serifs, or "feet," with letters made up of strokes of varying thickness. Sans serif fonts such as Arial have no serifs and have strokes of even thickness. Script faces resemble handwriting, and decorative fonts are flashy styles to be used sparingly in headlines or posters.

Make Your Point Font sizes are measured in points; 72 points equals 1 inch (2.54cm). It's almost universal to use 10- or 12-point type for the body of a document, with larger point sizes for headings. In any software application's pull-down menu or font-size box, you'll see a list of suggested sizes, but these aren't the only ones you can use--most programs allow you to type another size in the box, and many, such as Microsoft Word, allow half sizes (so entering a size of 12.5 points is valid).

Read Between the Lines When typing body text, make it easier to read by using a serif font rather than a script or decorative one (sans serif fonts often wear out their welcome after a paragraph or two). You'll also improve readability by using a font with a large x-height--the technical term for the height of a lowercase letter not including ascenders and descenders. Times New Roman in 11- or 12-point size is a good choice for body text; it's large enough to read and doesn't draw undue attention to itself.

Mix It Up For impressive headings, use a font that contrasts with your body text. The more the fonts contrast, the more likely the match will work. If you use Times New Roman for body text, use a fairly heavy and black sans serif font for your headings. Arial Black, Futura, Helvetica, and Swiss Black are good choices.

Fonts for Free If your font collection needs refreshment, the Web is a great source for freeware and shareware fonts, offering plenty of decorative fonts for headings and some handy symbol fonts, too. For decorative fonts, try the Font Empire (www.fontempire.com) or Font Mania (www.webfxmall.com/fonts/indexl.html); for symbol fonts, check out i/us--the Dingbat Pages (dingbats.i-us.com).

In addition, Famous Fonts (www. eliteentertainment.net/famousfonts) offers many of your favorite fonts from TV show rifles and national publications.

Font Installation 101 After downloading a font to your PC, you must install it before using it. Some fonts arrive as executable (.EXE) files and install automatically if you run them (using Windows' Start/Run menu).

Fonts supplied as Windows TrueType (.TTF) files must be installed by selecting Start/Settings/Control Panel/ Fonts. Select File/Install New Font, specify the folder or location of the TrueType file, select the font to install from the List of Fonts box (or choose Select All), and click OK.

Web Don'ts Be aware that visitors to your Web site may not see your painstakingly chosen font if it isn't installed on their computers. Stick to Web core fonts--such as Arial, Arial Black, Comic Sans MS, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, and Verdana. All of these can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com/truetype/default. asp for free.

Web Do's To use a font on your site that isn't a Web core font, make an image of it and use that instead. In your graphics editing software, select the text tool and type text in the desired font into a new image. Crop the image to size; select the background color and set it to transparent (so the page background will show through as if it were actual type); and save the file as a transparent GIF image. Add it to your Web page using the tag.

Drop That Cap If you can't find a suitable photo or illustration for a document, add a bit of visual spice with a dropped capital letter instead. In Microsoft Word, place your insertion point in the first paragraph of a new section and select Format/Drop Cap.

Select the Dropped option, select a font to use--one that contrasts with the text is a good choice--and click OK. Repeat at the beginning of each new section and use the same font for each.

Have a Wingding You may find that your symbol fonts are more useful than your clip art collection. Windows users have Wingdings as well as other symbol fonts installed automatically. To use these in Word, select Insert/Symbol, then select a symbol font from the Font drop-down list. Left-click a symbol character in the grid to view it more easily; click Insert, then Close to add it to your document.