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Text TipsMake your pages easier to read.
Opinion page by Duane Alan Hahn.
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). 
Typography on Web Pages: Italics
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.
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).
Design Elements: Headings to the left
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.
Fully-justified text works badly in short lines NetMechanic: Be Careful When You Justify Desktop publishing's twelve most common mistakes
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? 3 reasons not to use uppercase Random Capitalization, ALL Caps, and oThEr kEwL tYpInG
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
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.
Producing Accessible Documents If Line Length Didn't Run Them Off, Try New Times Roman!
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.
For use only by a comic application
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.
Does the Amount of Whitespace Really Matter?
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.
Typography on Web Pages: Italics
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. Eleven Common Web Page Design Frustrations #1 Tips on Designing Web Pages: Readability
It's best not to use a font below size 2 (10pt or 12px) for your main text. Your main text shouldn't be above size 3 (12pt or 16px) either if you want your pages to look more professional.
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