Web Design Mistakes - Text and FontsWritten by Breal Web Design
This article may be published electronically or in print, free of charge, without alteration to any content and resource box at end of article is included in it's entirety without alteration. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.Web Design Mistakes - Text and Fonts by Breal Web Design *********************************************************** The main purpose people use Internet is for research, according to most user surveys. While not specifying kind of research being done, it is safe to assume that people are spending a lot of time online reading. Unless a site is meant to be full of graphics, such as an art gallery or promotional page for a graphic designer, use of graphics should be minimal. To learn more about using graphics, send a blank e-mail to mailto:wdm-graphics@brealweb.com Your site should be easy to read. There are literally thousands of fonts out there, so why shouldn't you use a special one? Because not everyone looking at your web site will have font installed on their computer. Your visitor will be looking at your page with their installed fonts. Mac users have different default fonts to IBM and compatible users too. So how do you cater to masses? There are a few fonts that are installed by default on most computers and it's best to stick with them (for example: Times New Roman, Arial, Courier or Verdana). When using these fonts you can specify them in your font tags or in your CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) files. Always include alternatives for different browsers to choose from. Using a font tag for example: your text or <"FONT-FACE="Times New Roman, Times, serif">your text The worst text and font mistakes include: ø Making your text too small to read easily. If you are using a style to specify a font size, ensure your font is not under 10 points. The exception to this is 'fine print' such as a link to your privacy policy or other documentation you are legally required to display. ø L-o-n-g copy. You don't get your visitor's attention for long. Many readers will stop at 2 or 3 web pages (around 1000 words) or they'll start to skim your document and could easily miss important information. If you have miles of text one on page, you could consider splitting it up into sub pages. Try creating a summarised main version and use descriptive links to more pages.
| | How To Use PDF Files On The WebWritten by Mario Sanchez
Acrobat PDF is perhaps best format available to create printable documents, since it is optimized for letter sized sheets of paper.Since Acrobat Reader can be opened within Internet Explorer, distributing PDF documents through web has now become common practice. Acrobat is quickly becoming format of choice to distribute instruction manuals, special reports, resumes, ebooks, etc. However, all this comes at price of increased usability problems when users try to read PDF documents directly from screen; for example: *The web page that links to PDF file disappears after PDF opens. Since PDF files don't have navigation bars some users may not know how to get back to where they were. *Scrolling works differently: while scrolling HTML pages by dragging scrollbar is linear, PDF files force users to scroll one full page at a time. *Usually, PDF files come in small print (and Internet Explorer's Text Size options won't work on them). *Since PDF documents are opened in Acrobat Reader, they introduce Acrobat's own toolbar, which contains menu buttons that are different from those in Internet Explorer. These different "rules of engagement" are likely to cause user confusion. In order to make user experience as painless as possible, you must consider three simple guidelines to effectively use PDF files on your site:
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