RE: Re[2]: Numbers or Letters when labeling a graphic?

["David Artman" <david -at- davidartman -dot- com>]

   I have also seen this where callout objects are either square or
   circular, and the distinction is 'echoed' in references to them. That
   has its own gotchas, though, depending upon your tools:

   * If you cannot find a font that allows you to render each numeral
   variant as typed text--or that doesn't have enough numbers for your
   extreme use cases--then you now have to deal with images in your
   definition table or inline in your procedures. Not a total deal
   breaker... and a way to avoid inappropriate translation (though there's
   tons of ways to prevent that with typed text, too, of course).

   * Some typesetting tools (and DITA, with proper transform) can
   automatically render inline text of any font with the right character
   style as within a black box, as white text. So even without a custom
   font, you can use any arbitrary alphanumeric string (or symbols) as
   typed text with the callout treatment. FWIW, IBM's IBMIDDOC
   hardware-documentation output generator (circa 2005-ish) renders
   <callout> elements using a black square with white text, so there's
   some precedent.

   But you ain't gonna get no circles that way! :-(

   * Color will not be your friend, especially in screen shot situations
   (as opposed to, for example, vector art from CAD for hardware). Best
   bet is white on black and smart placement when overlapping the image
   (see my previous post about outdenting left-side callouts
   consistently!).

   Further, depending on the software and OS, you can potentially use OS
   color themes to ensure high contrast with your W-on-B callouts (and
   support company  colors/branding, to boot!).

   ** Bonus if you go that route: You can eliminate gradients in window
   chrome and thereby (a) significantly reduce image file sizes and (b) be
   able to PhotoShop different cropping or window sizes, as necessary for
   space considerations. Try making, say, a Windows Explorer window screen
   shot narrower, when it's got a gradient title bar! (Better be a dab
   hand with the blur tool!

   TL;DR: Yes, you can use all numeral if you distinguish definitional
   callouts from procedural callouts by bounding-object shape, size, or
   font; but consider both your current tool capabilities and near-future
   tool migration potential before you commit.

   David

   -------- Original Message --------
   Subject: Re[2]: Numbers or Letters when labeling a graphic?
   From: "Grant Hogarth" <[1]grant -at- hedgewizard -dot- net>
   Date: Tue, April 24, 2018 9:40 am
   To: "Lin Sims" <[2]ljsims -dot- ml -at- gmail -dot- com>, TECHWR-L
   <[3]techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
   All I can think of is to make the numbers a distinctly different font
   or
   font color (or both) from what you use for procedure numbering.

References

   1. mailto:grant -at- hedgewizard -dot- net
   2. mailto:ljsims -dot- ml -at- gmail -dot- com
   3. mailto:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
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