Re: On-line Help: Arial v. Times New Roman

[Chuck Martin <cmartin -at- SEEKERSOFT -dot- COM>]

At 02:35 PM 9/19/97 -0400, you wrote:
>     Dear On-Line Authors,
>
>     Recently I discovered that the new version of HDK can use the Time New
>     Roman font.  I was so excited that I immediately changed my Normal
>     text style from Arial to Times.  I loved the way it looked because it
>     reminded me of a written manual.
>
>     To make a long story short, a savvy HDK developer told me that, for
>     on-line help, Times New Roman is harder to read than Arial.  I
>     consequently took a fresh look at my help file and now I think she
>     might be right.
>
>     Is she right?  Unfortunately, I think she is.  But I am still too
>     attached to my help file to change the font yet.  I would appreciate
>     input from anyone who could talk me into (or out of) changing the font
>     back to Arial.
>
You *like* Times New Roman? That hardy old font from a design that was
crated mainly to withstand the rigors of poor-quality offset printing on
cheap newsprint?

Serifs get really roughed up on a computer screen. The 96 or 120 dpi just
isn't enough to render them well, especially at small font sizes.

If you're writing Windows Help, you should use neither. Instead, choose MS
Sans Serif as your text font. You won't find it in your font list, but you
can type it in. MS Sans Serif (and its counterpart, MS Serif) were designed
specifically for display on the low resolution of display devices.

To see the differences between the fonts, espeically at small font sizes,
type some small text in the four different fonts (try 8 point, common for
online Help body text) in you bitmap graphic program of choice (mine is
Paint Shop Pro). then enlarge the view and see the differences in the
renderings. It will show you pixel by pixel how each font is rendered for
the screen. You can clearly see what must be done to normally fine serifs
by the rendering process.
--
"You don't look American"
"Everyone looks American, because Americans are from everywhere"
                                            - Doonesbury
Chuck Martin
Technical Writer, Seeker Software, Inc      | Personal
cmartin -at- seekersoft -dot- com                      | writer -at- grin -dot- net
www.seekersoft.com                          | www.grin.net/~writer

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