[Framers] OT: General writing question

[David Creamer]

Sorry about the subject line on previous post.

My two cents...

Generally, if the document is meant to be read mostly on-screen--including
PDFs--sans serif is easier to read on most monitors, especially smaller or
older ones. That's why most websites tend to use san serif fonts. I like to
use a san serif that contains lots of styles and weights to give me some
variety in the design--condensed, normal, extended; regular, semi-bold,
bold, heavy, etc. Of course, italic/oblique fonts in those styles too.
Myriad Pro is a good example with about 30-odd fonts, but there are plenty
of others. If do multiple languages, Linotype Neue Helvetica is a good
choice as it can support up to 83 languages (not to be confused with
Helvetica Neue).

For _strictly_ print, the old ways are still the good ways... I like to use
Minion Pro since it has lots of fonts including special caption and display
styles. I try to stay away from the Arial/Times motif unless required.

As far as readability, I read something a _long_ time ago that said in the
United States, the reading preference (on hard copy) was split about
50/50--while in other countries, serif fonts still had the edge (about
80/20). That was due to the internet being more popular in the US at the
time, so the other countries might be closer to the US percentage now. Of
course, it is possible that the san serif preference could have surpassed
the serif with younger readers too.

David Creamer
IDEAS Training
ADOBE Authorized Instructor & Certified Expert since 1994
FrameMaker Certified since 1991, including structured XML
Authorized QuarkXPress Instructor and Certified Expert since 1988
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Subject: [Framers] OT: General writing question
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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,