“As the saying goes, type is a beautiful group of letters, not a group of beautiful letters.” -Matthew Carter. I agree with Carter because we don’t select one font for each letter, we select one font for all letters. Selecting the font is the most important part of formatting and designing your white paper. In my opinion, the sources show your understanding and sense of the document you are presenting to readers. For technical documents, fonts should show your sober, fit and orderly personality. Sources like Bradley, Ravie, Harrington, etc. they show your funny side, which is not suitable for technical documents.
Recommended sources:
The most suitable fonts for technical documents are the SANS SERIF and SERIF groups. SANS SERIF fonts include Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, and Verdana. And SERIF fonts include Times Roman, Times New Roman, Georgia, and Bookman.
Definitions:
The technical definition of the term SERIF is “a typeface that has small strokes at the end of the main strokes of each character.” In plain language, SERIF fonts have footers at the end of each letter. According to some research, it makes it much easier to read the content.
As in SANS SERIF, SANS means NO or NON in French. Because feet are a recognition of SERIF font, therefore SANS SERIF means font without feet. It is technically defined as “a typeface that does not have serifs (small strokes at the end of the main strokes of each character)”.
Why use SERIFS and SANS SERIFS:
The most important benefit of using these fonts is that they are readable. SERIFS are believed to improve the reading experience and readability for readers (Arditi, Cho 2005). Readers can distinguish the ends of the letters in this group by their feet. The industry uses SERIFS for user manuals and online helps because, even at small sizes, they are readable. While some years ago it was considered that NON SERIFS should be used for online content and publication, it is now accepted that both are perfect for reading online and in print. Bernard (2003), in his research, compared SERIFS and SANS SERIFS with Times New Roman and Arial. The results varied in the size of the fonts, but both were legible.
It is also common practice for writers who format and layout their documents, in which we maintain Arial 12 and Times New Roman 10 font and both are legible. Technical documents have codes, definitions, descriptions, diagrams, etc. so writing the text in SERIFS and SANS SERIFS increases the speed of reading and following the text. According to www.unc.edu, in a recent study, Arditi and Cho evaluated the use of SERIFS and SANS SERIFS with respect to speed, letter recognition, and continuous reading. And both had insignificant difference of these aspects.
A large percentage of users use Microsoft Windows as their operating system. The fonts available with Microsoft Office are those that are automatically installed with the operating system. So while you are typing on Microsoft Office documents or even using Adobe printer for PDF conversion; use SERIFS and SANS SERIFS. When we write technical documents, it is very likely that they will be converted to PDF or published as a web page/document.
Recommended styles for SERIFS and SANS SERIFS
- Use SANS SERIFS for headings and chapters
- Use SERIFS for content, subtitles, and text
- Select fonts with spacing between letters
- Chicago Manual Style
- MLA style
- APA style
- They work best in italics because they keep their features prominent and remain legible. We need to italicize some terms in technical documents, such as functions, features, tabs, or web pages.
- Use 2-3 fonts in one document, i.e. my favorite is Times New Roman, Arial and Verdana