Standard font for technical documentation

[Art Campbell]

Uh, no, no confusion. ;-  )

I said: "I usually use a serif body font and serif heads. The one I'm
working in now uses Palatino and Avant Garde."

So that would mean:
   serif for body = Palatino
   sans-serif for heads = Avant Garde

Art Campbell
               art.campbell at gmail.com
  "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52
Vincent and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson
                                                      No disclaimers apply.
                                                               DoD 358



On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 10:37 AM, Combs,
Richard<richard.combs at polycom.com> wrote:
> Art Campbell wrote:
>
>> I think it depends on the application, how the documents are
>> delivered, and what the company's stanard fonts (part of the corporate
>> "look," or branding, are).
>>
>> The other thing you should know is that for some reason, picking fonts
>> amounts to a religious war with odd fervor among the participants. So
>> you're unlikely to get one good answer.
>>
>> If I were you, I'd start with Adobe's Type Primer
>> http://www.adobe.com/education/pdf/type_primer.pdf
>>
>> For material that will be printed or delivered via PDF and likely to
>> be printed by the customer, I usually use a serif body font and serif
>> heads. The one I'm working in now uses Palatino and Avant Garde. If
>> the material will only be on-screen and/or web, I'd go with serif
>> fonts for both body and heads, and I'd pick one that was designed for
>> on-screen display -- very few are, or were. Verdana is one of them.
>> Arial is not.... Most type foundries today will have a few.
>>
>> If you want more detail, on why, Google "font readability research"
>
> Good advice, except for the serif / sans serif confusion. Serifs are the
> little embellishing strokes, usually more or less horizontal, at the
> tops and bottoms of letters. They help to guide your eye along a line of
> text as you read. Palatino is indeed a serif font, but Avant Garde,
> Verdana, and Arial are all sans serif fonts. Most people agree that sans
> serifs are preferable for the comparatively low resolution of a computer
> screen.
>
> Oh, yeah -- and among serifs, Palatino rules! Anyone who doesn't agree
> is an uncouth barbarian! ;-)
>
> Richard
>
>
> Richard G. Combs
> Senior Technical Writer
> Polycom, Inc.
> richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
> 303-223-5111
> ------
> rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
> 303-777-0436
> ------
>
>
>
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