{ Rules for Using Type }

Here are eighteen rules for using type, if your document has type I suggest following eighteen rules.



{1} Know the font's personality- every font has a personality, and people like some personalities better than others. So what's the rule here? Know your audience, know your document's purpose and pick a font that matches your audience's expectations and your document's purpose. Get this rule wrong and you've ruined your entire document.



{2} Avoid using the default fonts- if you use the default font in Word or InDesign you're telling the world you don't know there are any other options. Times New Roman and Calibri aren't bad fonts, they are just overused. Go back to Rule One ans think about personality. Could there be something better than the default? In most cases the answer is yes.



{3} Steer clear of cliches and uglies - some fonts have gained so much popularity that we can consider them cliches, overused and kind of obnoxious. This happens because most computers have many of the same fonts. If you can't find a font on your computer that meets your document's personality and isn't cliche or ugly, then install a new font. It's easy and it can make all the difference.



{4} Use two fonts - most documents look better if you use more than one font. But few look good if you use more than three. So what do you need to remember? No matter what the document is try using two fonts. One font for the heading and another font for the body text. It will make your document pop so much more than just using one. The rule applies to all documents from proposals to resume to business cards.



{5} While it is good to use two fonts, it is bad to use two fonts that look like each other. So pick two fonts that look like each other. So pick two fonts that come from different font families, serifs, sans serif, script, or decorative. Make sure fonts look very different from each other



{6} Pay attention to size - because 12 point font was the MS Word default for so long, many of us began to think that 12 points is the best size for reading. But our eyes can actually read smaller just fine. 10 point fonts look better in most documents. And you can even go down to a 7 or 8 point font on a business card. Also heading should be larger than body text and the most important thing on the document should be the biggest



{7} Don't use all caps -  we read words in shapes. That's how out brains reads so fast. But when we write words in ALL CAPS, the shape go away, words all turn into rectangles. So when you write out a bunch of words in all caps, it slows down reading. To the person reading all caps also looks like you're yelling at them.



{8} Be careful with reverse type- reverse type means you put a light color of text on a dark background or vica versa. Reverse type is good for head lings and titles, but not much else. If you use reverse type be sure to have highly contrasting colors, never use blue on red, don't use fonts with narrow or fancy features and use fonts with heavy weights.



{9} Create a ideal line length - line length refers to the width of a line of text on a single line. If a line length is too long, text becomes difficult to read. Line length can be long if the font size is large, but if you use a small font size you line length shouldn't be more than 3.5 inches



{10} Adjust your line spacing- line spacing also called leading is the space between lines. Most often fonts are designed with line spacing slightly larger than their point size. Typically that looks crowed with large bodies of text. Consider increasing line spacing to improve readability.



{11} Pay attention to readability- readability refers to how well large quantities of text read. Readability is affected by font size, font type, leading, kerning, and line length.



{12} Watch the legibility - legibility as opposed to readability refers to how well short bursts of text reads. For words that are important to be understood, legibility is critical. Note that legibility is affected by the actual letters in a word. Sometimes one word will read perfectly fine in a particular font, but another word will be difficult to read in the same font. If a name or word is uncommon or spelled uniquely, you won't want to choose a typeface that is difficult to read.



{13} Make correct use of small caps- small caps like all caps have a readability problem when used for large sections of text. However small caps should be used for abbreviations so that undue attention isn't drawn to the abbreviation. Also use small caps for AM and PM. You can also use small caps for the first line of a new chapter in a book just for visual interest.

{14} Get rid of line breaks - line breaks refer to when a word at the end of a line is broken into two and hyphenated to lead the reader to the next line. The reality is line breaks are bad for readability and they are just plain ugly. Adjust your desktop publishing program to get rid of them because they are rarely a good design choice.



{15} Don't leave orphans - orphans refer to single words that are left by themselves at the end of a paragraph. In the word of words it is especially bad to leave orphans that are particularly little. If a tiny little word ends a paragraph all by itself, reword the sentence to get the little guy back up with his family.



{16} know how to highlight and how not to - highlight text is an important part of readability and scannability. The general rule, though is to never highlight more than 10% of a page. If everything is highlighted, nothing become highlighted. Also only use two or three highlighting techniques at once. Don't in other words use colors, italics, boldface, font change, size and underlining all at the same time.



{17} Consider using old style figures - old style figures refer to numbers that are written with elements that go above and below the baseline, just like letters. Often if you use old style figures, numbers will blend in better with the text



{18} Understand your punctuation - punctuation has a powerful visual impact. While you should know how to use all fifteen punctuation marks we use on English, you should also know that you can break the rules with them. Use punctuation to break up sentences, offer personality and aside, develop personality, and create interest.

Hopeful these tips can help you the next time you use text in a document.