Text Tips
Make your pages easier to read.
Opinion page by Duane Alan Hahn.

Italics

I've been to some web sites that have large sections in italics. It's hard on the eyes. It's even harder on the eyes than a serif font. I'm not saying that you should never use italics, just be smart about it. Bold is usually a better choice than italics, since it's so much easier to read (in small doses anyway).

Web style guide: Italics

Typography on Web Pages: Italics

Yaacov's Site - Web Design #9

Bold

Similar to italics, only use bold text when you really need it for emphasis. If you use bold text too much, it loses its effectiveness.

Web style guide: Bold

Typography on Web Pages: Bold

Centered Text

Titles and captions are about the only things that look OK when centered, although many people agree that left-aligned titles are better. The rest of the text should usually be left-aligned because it's easier to read (easier to track with your eyes).

Common Web Page Design Frustrations

Design Elements: Headings to the left

Justified Text

You might think that it's cool to have your web pages look just like a newspaper by having a straight edge on both sides of a paragraph, but it can be hard to read. The space between the words is usually inconsistent and that can scare off a lot of visitors. You might want to give up the pretty look if you want visitors to return.

NetMechanic: Be Careful When You Justify

Desktop publishing's twelve most common mistakes

Avoid ALL CAPS

Using all uppercase letters is a bad idea, even for titles. It's harder to read and your visitors will either think you are yelling or just think that you are lazy. It seems most people hate ALL CAPS, so make your visitors happy. You don't want to go in the opposite direction and use all lowercase letters either. That's almost as hard to read and makes you seem just as lazy. Using regular sentence case for your main text and possibly Title Case for your titles will make just about everyone happy.

Capitals: Are You YELLING at Me?

WMU Writing Tips: AVOID ALL CAPS IN ALL WRITING

Avoid All Caps

Underlining

One of the first things Internet users learn is that underlined text is a link. If you don't want to annoy and confuse your visitors, don't underline normal text. Use Bold, italics, or another font size before even thinking about underlining normal text.

That also goes for titles and subtitles. Forget what they taught you in school. The Web has its own rules when it comes to underlining.

Confusion caused underlined text on a web page

No-nos that ID you as an amateur #4

The Top 20 Web Design Tips #10

Is Your Website "Killing" Your Online Business? #22

Sans Serif Fonts Are Better

I use Verdana for my text which is a sans serif font. A serif font, such as Times New Roman, is hard to read on a computer monitor. If you don't want to give your visitors a headache, use a sans serif font. It's also best to avoid strange fonts that people may not have on their computers. Most visitors don't want to download special fonts just so they can see your pages the way you want.

Web Wiz Guide

Producing Accessible Documents

Comic Sans

Many people hate Comic Sans mostly because it's as hard to read as italics in large doses. When some people visit a web site that uses Comic Sans as the main text, it screams to them, "Hi! My lame, self-absorbed, 'artistic' expression is more important than your bleeding eyeballs!"

Comic Sans wasn't meant to be used on web sites in place of normal text, it was made for comic/cartoon balloons. If you use it in a limited way, as intended, it's not bad, but using it as your main font will scare away a lot of visitors. They'll think you're an immature little girl or one of those creepy, clueless, needy, icky-sticky people who smell like spoiled food and used kitty litter. If you're on the Web to make money and you don't want to lose potential customers, don't use Comic Sans.

Some dyslexic people find Comic Sans easier to read. If your web site is only for dyslexic users, you might be able to get away with it, but most everyone else will think you're a screwball.

Ban Comic Sans

For use only by a comic application

I hate comic sans

Paragraph Spacing

Paragraphs are easier to read when they are separated by blank lines. I have visited hundreds of web sites that have all of the paragraphs smashed together with only a little indentation to separate them. Indented paragraphs are harder to read, even when they're separated by white space. It's best to keep the text to the left and add a blank line between paragraphs to make your pages as easy to read as possible.

Using White Space Effectively In Web Design

Whitespace by Mark Boulton

Padding

Here's a really short tip. Text should not be right up against the edges of the browser window or touching the side of a box, line, or edges of an image. A little padding makes a big difference.

Add White Space To Your Images Automatically

CSS Padding

Line Length

Some people say that text should stretch to fit any browser window size, but if they knew anything about readability, they would understand that many people have a hard time reading paragraphs that are too wide. A lot of people who have screen resolutions that are higher than 800 x 600 do not want to fiddle around squeezing down their browser windows until the line length is just right.

Some books and web sites on this subject say that paragraph width should not be more than 65 characters for easier reading. Columns shouldn't be too small either. A column that is three words wide would be just as hard to read. It has been suggested by others that many people have no trouble reading paragraphs that have an extremely wide line length.

Many accessibility proponents are against more than one column on a page because they claim that certain special access software reads pages straight across. If that's true then someone should create better software. It should be able to read logical chunks of text no matter how it's displayed on the page.

Most of the accessibility web sites I have visited are horrible. The line length is stretched too wide, demanding that you must resize your browser window if you want to read their text and some of those sites refuse to have any kind of margins or padding, so the text is right up against the left side of the browser window.

Limit Your Line Length

Eleven Common Web Page Design Frustrations #1

Tips on Designing Web Pages: Readability

Text Size

It's best not to use a font below size 2 (10pt or 12px) for your main text. Your main default text size shouldn't be above 3 (12pt or 16px) either if you want your pages to look more professional.

Who reads the fine print?

Jump List