[Framers] OT: General writing question

[Keith Soltys]

The biggest problem I have found with some sans serif fonts is the
difficulty in distinguishing between a capital I and a lower case l, and in
some fonts, the number 1.

If you are writing a technical document and there is any chance of
confusing these characters, then you have a good case for not using that
font.

There are readability issues (font's with a larger x-height may be easier
to read for older readers or readers with visual impairments) and
copy-fitting considerations (Times New Roman gets more characters to the
line than many other fonts, hence reducing page count on large documents).

If you are an STC member, you may want to look through the archives of
Intercom or Technical Communication. There may be some articles there.

Regards
Keith

--
*Keith Soltys*
Senior Technical Writer
Architecture
TMX Group
(416) 947-4397
http://www.tmx.com/

On Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 9:58 AM, Tammy Van Boening <
tammyvb at spectrumwritingllc.com> wrote:

> All,
>
> I know that this list is for Framemaker-related questions, but that means
> we
> are all writers on this list, so I wanted to post a general writing style
> question to the multitudes of gurus that I can reach as a result. . .
>
> Since the cows have come home, I have always, and I mean always, used Times
> or another serif font for body text and san serif for headings and I know
> that this is considered the "norm" or "standard" for tech. docs. That said,
> this new client is also insistent on using sans serif fonts for both
> headings and text and it isn't pretty when you're trying to read this
> manual.
>
> Does anyone have any hard references/links to sites that you could point me
> to that stipulate why this is the norm/standard for writing manuals?  Right
> now, my client considers everything that I offered as an explanation as
> simply anecdotal and not worthy of consideration.
>
> Yea, I am about to punt. . . .
>
> Thanks,
>
> TVB
>
>
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