Proper Font Selection

Proper Font Selection

by: Maricon Williams

In times when you are writing a message in your computer, have you ever asked yourself the following questions: How will I convey my message with the use of my fonts? Do I need several colors? Am I going to use big, bold, crisp or spaced fonts? Well, you are not alone in this dilemma. To help you with it, just read on..

Fonts are the crossing point between writers and readers. This is the reason why they have to be catchy in appearance and content.

Presentation is crucial because it is not only the superb content that draws the reader’s attention. It starts with the font’s character. It should speak for itself. Font’s role is to get attention, enhance readability, set and atmosphere and most importantly projects an image. To be able to play the role well, we need to follow certain guidelines.

The first rule is to know what case to use. Avoid using all upper or lower case especially in the body of your composition because it is hard to read. Use upper case in titles and headings only if it is necessary. Do not make the readers curse you while reading your message.

The generally accepted size of a font is between 1012 point for the body, 1448 point for primary headings and one half of the primary heading point size for secondary headings. Be aware though, that fonts may appear larger in computer than the actual size.

Keep the font simple. Your font is used to augment your message and not to impair it. Simplicity is still a virtue in writing so bear in mind using simple fonts not exaggerated ones.

Sometimes variation is necessary. Variety is most of the time used to break the monotony. Examples of variation are underlining of the text, italization, making the letters bold, highlighting and the likes. But it will be overstressed if you used them all so use them sparingly.

The last rule is to match your font with your medium. You can break other aforestated rules provided that it blends with your medium. Every project has many perspectives. Some are intended to general public some are specific. Some are serious others are funny. But whatever your approach and typeface it must redound to the benefit of your project and not to destroy its goal.

After you are through reading these rules, ask yourself, am I using my fonts perfectly? If so continue what you’ve started. But if not, try to change your ways for the better. Communication is more than just words. Actually, there are a lot of things that we should consider to achieve not just comprehension but retention.

About The Author

Maricon Williams

Book reading has always been her greatest passion mysteries, horrors, psychothrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 01

by Maricon Williams

Breathe New Life Into Your HalfDead Website By Us

Breathe New Life Into Your HalfDead Website By Using Words That Sell

by: David Peterson

This article may come as a surprise to you.

Especially since it is written by a web designer. Let me explain……

Rescue Your Web Site from Boring Words and Poor Design.

The difference between a successful website design and a site that brings in zero or very little business is not how nice the graphics are, not the colors you choose. Itกs not the flashy animation, and itกs not your precious company logo.

Iกm not saying to remove these elements. Some of them are important. But they’re mostly egodriven. They are กmeก messages, and have absolutely nothing to do with what you want your visitor to do.

And what is that you ask? The answer is of course. You want your visitors to buy something.

People who are considering doing business with you are only interested in one thing; กWhatกs In It For Me?ก

One of the first steps toward a successful website is writing copy that tells the reader whatกs in it for him, in a style that is easy to read.

Make More Cash

Study any website that makes money and I promise youกll see the following copy elements in place:

In the main body copy, the text color is always black with a white background, making it easy to read. This should be obvious, but itกs amazing how many websites out there do not follow this very basic guideline.

Testimonials, and other secondary elements commonly use a contrasting font such as courier, courier new. The background in light blue, beige, or yellow shade to make it stand apart from the white background of the main body copy.

Verdana is the most widely used font for your body copy. This font was actually developed for use in the web. Times New Roman, Arial, and Georgiana are also popular. Never use more than two different font faces in your sales copy.

The use of yellow highlights, italics and bold fontstyle for emphasis.

Headlines and Subheads are usually a contrasting color from the black body text. A shade of red, dark green and dark blue are good colors. However, do not use more than three or four different colors.

Sentence and paragraph font size is commonly between 8pt. and 12pt. Never smaller than that, and never bigger.

Headlines and sub headlines usually between 14pt. and 18pt.

Paragraphs never justified. Most common is leftmargin with no indent.

How To Write Successful Headlines

In your sales copy you need an attentiongrabbing headline and a compelling sales message full of benefits, clearly describing what your product or service is all about.

Legendary copywriter Ted Nicholas author of 14 bestselling books including กMagic Words That Bring You Richesก has these excellent tips on writing headlines

กStart with a well thought out headline.ก

กFive times as many people read the headline as the body copy. It makes sense, therefore, to spend the major portion of your effort on headlines.ก

กA good headline motivates action by stirring an emotionก

กWrite as many as 250 headlines before settling on oneก

13 Proven Headline Words

Announcing…

Secrets of…

New…

Now…

Amazing…

Facts you…

Breakthrough…

At Last…

Advice to…

The truth of…

Free…

How would…

How to…

How To Write AttentionGrabbing First Sentences

Joe Sugarman (of blublocker sunglass fame) and author of bestselling book กAdvertising Secrets of the Written Wordก has these tips on writing first sentences;

กKeep it short, sweet and almost incomplete.ก

For example:

Itกs easy.

It had to happen.

Itกs time.

Itกs crazy.

The sole purpose of the first sentence is to get you to read the second sentence.

How To Write AttentionGrabbing Ending Sentences

กYou must plant seeds of curiosity for the reader.ก กAt the end of a paragraph offer a reason to read the next paragraph.ก

Using sentences such as…..

But thereกs more.

So read on.

But I didn’t stop there.

Let me explain.

Now here comes the good part.

These tips represent just the tip of the iceberg on breathing new life into your halfdead web site.

Weกll cover all of the other necessary elements in future articles. Stay tuned.

I hope that you have found this information to be helpful in your pursuit of excellence. Thank you for reading.

Regards,

Dave Peterson

About The Author

Dave is not only a Professional Website Designer. He also incorporates exciting stateoftheart marketing strategies and expertise that help clients put more cash in there pockets. Providing great value to his clients.

This article was posted on April 12, 2004

by David Peterson

Website Design Basic Concepts

Website Design Basic Concepts

by: Kim Eyer

So, whatกs in a website design anyway? And, how do you get a design that is appealing to the broad and varied tastes of all those Internet surfers out there?
This is critical. Your website design is the first impression you make on your customers and visitors. There are a few sites in my favorites and bookmarks that I consider poorly designed. I still have them, because they have information I want. Lucky for the site owner that their content was that good! But one day I will find another site with the same information and a better design. Then guess who will be in my favorites and who will be left out? Maybe your content is great too, but don’t take chances on a poor design. Think how much more repeat traffic and referred traffic you will get if you have both great content and great design.
Design Taste Varies OK, design is a matter of taste and target audience to some degree. What looks good to one visitor may not be so great to another. Here we have the old adage of "one manกs trash is another manกs treasure". But there are solid basics that go into good site design. Creating a distinctive visual style and applying it consistently is the best way to bind a series of subjects and web pages together.
Layouts The layout of your site is an important design element. A webpage is a document, plain and simple. It is like formatting a letter, an outline, a report, or an advertisement. Establish a layout grid and a style for handling your text and graphics, then stick with it to build a consistent rhythm and unity across all the pages of your site. Make it easy to follow, pleasing to the eye. Learn to use tables and nested tables, lists, and even well designed frames for controlling layouts.
Color Color has a lot to do with target audience as well. What appeals to a teenager may not work with a target audience of babyboomers, and so forth. But anybody can appreciate color coordination. Color coordination can be learned. Yes, itกs a lot easier if you have a natural "knack" for these things, but you can learn basic color coordination techniques that make the difference between "tacky, yuk!!!" and "soothing to the eye".
Safe Colors Everyone does NOT have 16 million colors on their computer. Learn to use the websafe 216 colors. Notice thatกs 216 colors, not 256 colors. This is a matter of video card capability and you are at the mercy of the viewerกs personal computer system. Your best bet is to stick to 6 x 6 x 6 bit color resolution (216 colors) to cover the majority of Internet users. The 216 color palette gives you plenty for design options. Sure, not as many as 256 colors or 16 million, but still plenty to accomplish what you want or need to do with color.
Page Load Time Now Iกll be the first person to admit that I have made *personal* web pages which have large graphics or music .wav files and other things that take awhile to load. The point here is, they are my personal websites, *not* my professional or commercial websites. I may use these long loading pages for demoing several techniques, or chatting with friends and other developers, but never never never for professional site design (unless my client insists, in which case I do not use their site as a demo to other potential clients!). This doesn’t mean you have to give up everything on professional sites. It just means take it easy, use only one highloadtime element or two, learn to compress your graphics properly, and if youกve got that much "stuff" then break it up into more than one page.
Don’t Overdo IT A typical mistake among developers is to overdo it when putting together a website. Try to use extras in moderation. Some common things that get overused are:

graphics
background images
bevels and other graphic tricks
excessive frames
text scrolling, animated .gifกs, page fadeins

Too much of something just comes off as being "cutsie", tacky, or unoriginal…but used properly it can add just the right touch. Learn to use things that compliment your siteกs content, and not to overdo it with extra techniques and tricks.
Readability Make your pages as easy to read as possible. Black text on a white or offwhite background is the easiest to read. There are plenty of hardtoread pages that use backgrounds the same shade as the text (dark text on a dark background and light on light), or what I call the "neon" look with bright color on bright color.
Learn to use the <font face="FirstFontChoice,SecondFontChoice,sansserif"> tag and give your readers a font thatกs easy on the eye. I always think itกs such a shame to see a site full of great content and then left in the default Times New Roman font. Use a sansserif font arial and verdana are good choices, then put "sansserif" generic font in your last html tag attribute to cover anyone that may not have a specific font you listed as a first choice or second choice.
Browser and Monitor Compatibility . Learn to make your web pages compatible with both Microsoft Internet Explorer(IE) and Netscape Navigator. After preparing a site, test it in both browsers and ondifferent screen sizes or resolutions. Typical figures are 80% of Internet users are on the IE browser, 80% using 800 x 600 resolution, and most on a 15" or 17" screen….but, can you really afford for your site to look poor to 20% of the market? The answer is NO. Make your site compatible with both browsers and take that silly "best viewed with…" graphic off the site! Furthermore, use alt tags in your graphics for people who surf with images turned off, or on smaller browsers which don’t support them.
Using Java Personally, I like Java and use it in site design. However, you have to remember many people turn it off for one reason or another. Or they may be using a browser that doesn’t support it.Therefore, if you use a java driven menu (quite popular nowadays), you better have some alternate navigation.

The article is an excerpt from the "Master The Web" ebook. For a complete copy of the eBook visit <a href="

http://www.eyerstation.com/ebook2.html

About The Author

Kim Eyer, of EyerStation.com publishes the WebSiteOwner eZine for webmasters and small businesses. To get your monthly copy and access to its support website, send a blank email to [email protected] with the word กSubscribeก in the subject line.

This article was posted on February 4, 2002

by Kim Eyer

Effective Website Design

Effective Website Design

by: Julie Martin

One of the most commonly overlooked elements of an effective EBusiness is the very thing that is essential to your success. Something as simple as the design of your website can make or break your business. Each consumer has their own set preferences of what they find appealing, and it’s impossible to please everyone. However, there are some simple rules to follow to ensure that your website will appeal to the vast majority of Internet surfers.

1. Toss Out The Clutter

Does your website bear an even passing resemblance to the junk drawer in your kitchen? In an effort to make a site as pretty as possible, many people make the mistake of having too many images, too much clutter and not enough information. If you are in the business of selling information, you will need to make sure that your site is as informative as possible.

The first paragraph on your website is the most important of all the information on your site. You will need to ขgrabข your viewer right then and there or, unfortunately, your website can become a statistic quickly. In fact, the majority of web surfers spend 10 seconds on a site before deciding whether to stay or go. If they’re stuck waiting for images to load and having to page down to get to any text, you have all ready lost them.

2. Punch Up Your Sales Copy

Many people view a website as an impersonal tool, a way to reach many people quickly. They tend to loose focus on the personal aspect of doing business and creating strong customer relationships.

For example, if you walked into a brick and mortar store and an employee approached you waving banners, and saying ขLOOK AT THIS!ข you would most likely run the other way. On the other hand, if a knowledgeable sales person approached you and said, ขWe have some wonderful specials that we have hand picked just for you,ข you would be much more likely to stay. Just as in the real world, you only have a few seconds to make a good impression.

As we mentioned above, the first paragraph is the cornerstone of your entire website. It needs to be informative, to the point and most importantly; it has to leave them wanting more.

3. Test Your Website

Another common mishap in website design is overlooking different monitor sizes, browser types and font preferences set by Internet users.

Your site may look just fine to you, but to someone on a 13 inch monitor with their default text size set to ขLargestข it may look just plain awful. Most browsers allow you to view a website using four or five different font sizes. It is a good idea to view your site using all of them to make sure your design remains intact and that the formatting of your text is how you want it to look.

If you’re having a great deal of trouble making your site look right during font changes, you may want to include CSS or Cascading Style Sheets. CSS ensures that the font size stays the same on your site no matter what preferences a user might have their browser set to recognize.

It is a good idea to have your friends preview your site using AOL browsers, and different settings to make sure that your site will look the same to everyone.

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Be an Individual

Many EBusinesses come with their own ขcookie cutterข websites that make it easy for everyone to get their Internet presence up and running. While this does make it easier, it does make it harder to stand out in the crowd. How many websites have you seen lately that look identical? Today’s Internet users are savvy, and getting more savvy every day. They can smell a ขcloneข miles away and may decide to bypass your business all together.

While it does take time and some skill, learning how to use HTML, and design programs for websites can be time well spent. If you don’t have the time or the drive to learn to do your own site, you can usually find a webmaster for a reasonable amount of money who can handle the design for you. It may mean the difference of making the sale, or being passed over.

In closing, the most important element of effective web design is making sure that your website reflects who you are. Never forget that running an EBusiness isn’t that different from running a brick and mortar store. Appearances do matter and they do make a difference.

About The Author

Julie Martin is the publisher of ขThe Iscaweb eZineข a weekly eZine dedicated to increasing your online profits, no matter what you are selling. Julie also uses the ขPlugInProfitข system to GREAT effect!

To subscribe to the eZine, or to learn more about the PlugInProfit system visit: http://www.iscaweb.com

This article was posted on August 16

by Julie Martin

Design Myths

Design Myths

by: Florie Lyn Masarate

It is said that in designing, there are certain rules that these designers have to know. These rules were designed to be followed but not necessarily at all times. Sometimes the need arises for them to break them. But it is always best to know them first before breaking them. Knowing the rules would be useful when the time comes when you are questioned why you broke them in the first place.

Never use your font in only one document. In being a designer, it is common knowledge that they have their own fonts, many to be specific. As in other kind of printing job, using different types of fonts will make it jumbled and thus difficult to understand. The readers will get lost in the muddled words that what you are trying to say is not anymore evident. This is also not saying that you have to stick to the usual fonts that printing dictates. It only means you have to stand up for the choices of fonts that you use.

The use of serif over sans serif. There is a theory that says serif is easier to read than sans serif because of the characters that makes it easy for people to read them. In reality, any font can be readable depending on how you design or put them into prints. With the proper design, any kind of font is made perfect for reading. Sans serif gives documents a more modern look into them and it is still a font widely used in Europe.

Two spaces after a coma. Before the computer has become a source of printing documents, the typewriter makes use of two spaces after a period to give enough space for sentences to emphasize a stop. With the computer nowadays and the different fonts to choose from, having two spaces is not anymore a good option. In most prints, the readers find it more difficult to read these because of the long stops in between the fonts. It is becoming a mishap rather than a point signifying a stop.

Do not use capital letters. The days when using capital letters is equals to highlighting your point is almost extinct with letters now being made bold and by means of using another font for words that need the most emphasizing. The lack of ascenders and descenders is most difficult in reading the letters.

Centering texts. Some texts can be centered but most certainly not all. The use of aligned left and justified is considerable than centered. A text put in centers confuses reading as you cannot tell when the text begins and the next starts.

These are just some of the things that printing dictates but not necessarily need to be followed. It is up to the designers to decide which they think is best.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.losangelesprintingservice.com

About The Author

Florie Lyn Masarate got the flair for reading and writing when she received a subscription of the school newsletter in kindergarten. She got her first article published on that same newsletter in the third grade.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 03

by Florie Lyn Masarate

How To Make Your Own Font

How To Make Your Own Font

by: Maui Reyes

If you’ve always thought your handwriting is so much better than the many fonts out there, then maybe it’s time you made your mark: literally. Creating your own font isn’t as hard as it seems—all you need is a pen, a paper, a little programknowhow, and a comprehensible penmanship.

Oh, and Macromedia’s Fontographer and Adobe Illustrator.

1.) Write down the alphabet. If you have a WACOM or any other drawing tablet, then you can just doodle right on to Photoshop or whatever photo editing software you have. If you don’t have one, then a pen and paper will do—plus a scanner. Scan it using the highest resolution possible, so you’ll get a pretty accurate scribble for your font.

2.) Edit it. If you think your penmanship is perfect the way it is, noise and all, then skip this part. But if you think it needs a little more work, go ahead and clean it up using Photoshop or whatever photo editing software you use. Now you’ll have to save each letter as an individual file.

3.) Open Fontographer. This is where your font comes to life. Go to the File menu and choose ขnew fontข. Double click on letter ขAข, and a window will pop up. It’s time to get busy.

4.) Cut and paste, edit if you like. Copy the letter ขAข that you have in Photoshop or whatever program you used, and paste it in the Fontographer window. This is the ขguideข for your font—it’s not actually a font yet. Now select ขOutlineข from the layers menu, then click on ขAuto Traceข from the Element menu. This lets Fontographer trace the edges of your font for you. Twiddle with the settings on Auto Trace to achieve your desired tracing effect. If Auto Trace didn’t seem to do such a good job at certain corners, you can always correct it. Use the arrow tool to edit points. This takes practice to master, so be patient.

5.) Hint, hint. Bring up the Kerning dialogue to preview your font. Now that your letter ขAข is born, you might want to make its widths and locations uniform. This is where ขHintingข comes in play. Selecting lines to make measurements uniform will greatly help make it look more professional. Click on the ขHintข on the layers panel and mark lines on the horizontal and vertical stems (do this when you’re done editing the points on your font).

6.) Christen your baby. You’re almost ready to generate your font. Highlight your alphabet and make sure to hit Correct Path Direction, to punch holes through the R’s, O’s, D’s, and so on. Under the Metrics menu, select Auto Kern. Then comes the fun part: under the Element menu, select Font Info, then General, then type in the name of your font. When you’re done, generate the font by going to the File menu and clicking on Generating Font Files.

About The Author

Maui Reyes has written various articles of different topics. She has a clever writing skills that isnt just good for marketing strategies but also in reviews of products, news, technological innovations, health problems, legality issues and many more. Another factor that made her land into this job is her flexibility in her writing just about everything under the sun.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 10

by Maui Reyes

Elements of Graphic Design for Your Website

Elements of Graphic Design for Your Website

by: Kelly Paal

We’ve all seen them. Poorly designed web sites that make you cringe as soon as they load. But how do you keep your website from becoming, well, ugh. You could hire a professional web designer, and that’s expensive, or maybe you already hired a professional, or someone who claims to be professional, and you don’t like what they’re doing with your site. It all comes down to the K.I.S.S. principle; keep it simple stupid. And you’re probably asking well what does this really mean for web design.
Here are some basic graphic design/web design principles that you can use on your site:
1. Background, be careful what color you use for the background of your site. Yes I know that you’re trying to get noticed, but really they’ve already decided to look at your page so why does it have to be orange? Seriously though, consider how long you want people to be on your site, half an hour, one hour, more? Whatever the time chose your background color and then sit in front of your computer and stare at it, for awhile. Is the color easy to look at? Difficult? Does it make your eyes water? Does it make you calm? If you can look at the color for about fifteen minutes without a problem you’re okay.
2. Text, related to the above be careful what text color you use. Follow the rules above for determining a text color. It should be easy to read, and look at.
3. Font, no more that three fonts on the entire website. I mean that! A big mistake that I see a lot of times is the use of more than three different fonts, it get’s hard to read no matter how neat you think it looks.
4. Font size, no more that three font sizes either. Now I don’t mean three font sizes for each of the three fonts you’ve chosen. I mean no more than three fonts with a total of three sizes throughout the entire site, and if you can get by with less even better. It will simplify your site.
5. Scrolling, this is a big one literally. I’ve been on too many sites where I had to scroll down so far that my computer beeped at me. This is really important on your main page. Keep it very sparse, generally any information that someone has to scroll more than one full page down for will not be read.
This is only a start of course but it’s a start and it is on these issues that I see so many problems. Always remember that simplicity is best.
Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal

About The Author

Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.

This article was posted on July 02, 2004

by Kelly Paal

Top 10 Web Design Mistakes

Top 10 Web Design Mistakes

by: Lisa Irby

As a webmaster, you want to keep your visitors content so they’ll come back again. Below you will find ten common mistakes made by webmasters that may deter people from returning.
1) Poor Color Choice
Thereกs one important thing to keep in mind when designing your web site, and that is always keep it simple. More is not necessarily better. Your web site should contain no more than three colors. Also remember that your body text should be a contrasting color from your background. Thereกs nothing worse than trying to read yellow text on a pink background. It may look cool to you, but cause your visitors to go crosseyed.
2) Confusing Navigation
If your visitors cannot find their way around your web site, theyกll leave…plain and simple. Your navigation should be logical and consistent on every page. Studies have also shown that web surfers prefer the standard left or right side navigation over other layouts.
3) Inconsistent Font Face and Size
Just like your navigation, youกll want your font style and size to be consistent. If your home page text is in Arial font, size 10, make sure the rest of your pages adhere to the same font style and size. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and you may need to use a smaller font for disclaimers, terms and conditions, etc. However, in most cases, you should use the same style on every page.
4) Long Paragraphs
This is a common mistake made by many webmasters.
To make your web pages easy to read, remember to break up your paragraphs often and use subtitles. Most people will skim when trying to find what they’re looking for so when your paragraphs are small and separated by logical headings, it will make it much easier on your visitorกs eyes.
5) Misplaced or Lack of Contact Info
Don’t make people search for contact information…especially if you’re selling goods and services. Always have your contact information visible on every page of your web site. Hidden contact information looks fishy and makes people leery of doing business with you.
6) Long Page Loads
If your web site does not fully load within 10 seconds, your HTML files are too large. Check your graphics. Are you using too many? Do they need to be resized? Make sure your multicolor graphics (photos) are saved in JPEG format and use GIF files for solid colors and poster art. Also remember to use table height and width tags in your HTML code because your text will load before the images. Animated graphics also slow the page loading time tremendously.
7) No Meta Tag Info
Meta tags are HTML code invisible to the human eye but read by many of the search engines. While these don’t have as much of an impact as they used to, many search engines still rely on this information when displaying your site in the search results.
8) Use of Frames
Frames can become somewhat of a burden. Many search engines do not list pages with frames, they don’t allow visitors to bookmark certain pages, and they can cause printing problems.
9) Scrolling Text
The marquee tag is a cool feature, but many overuse it. Although the idea of scrolling text may seem appealing, remember that not everyone will find this idea entertaining. If you do decide to use it, make sure you clearly evaluate whether or not it is adding value or enhancing your page. There are some instances where this feature works, but there are many where it doesn’t. Use it very sparingly.
If you have a sentence or two that you feel is very important to your readers, don’t make them wait eons for the message to scroll across your screen just use plain text and save the scrolling text for the less significant messages or perhaps subtitles.
10) Wrong Resolution
The average web surfer surfs with their PC screen set to an 800 x 600 resolution. If you create your web pages to fit a 1024 x 768 resolution or higher, keep in mind many people will have to scroll left and right to see your entire page. I don’t know about you, but I find that quite annoying.
If you want your web page to be displayed correctly in all resolutions, create your web pages with tables and use percentages to define your table widths instead of actual pixel values. For example, if the table width is set to 100% instead of ก800ก then it will take up 100% of the screen no matter what the PC resolution is set to.

About The Author

Lisa Irby is the author of 2 Create a Web Site a site that encourages you to plan accordingly and GET THE FACTS before diving into the web site creation process.

http://www.2CreateAWebSite.com

This article was posted on December 06, 2003

by Lisa Irby

Create Your Own Business Cards, Part 2

Create Your Own Business Cards, Part 2

by: Jane Fulton

This is the second part of creating your own business card. If you missed the first one, let me know: mailto:[email protected]

Click in the box, where you want your text to appear.Type in your text. Make sure the text is where you want it. For example, in my card the bottom text wasn’t under my logo. To put it under the logo, I highlighted the text I wanted under the logo and clicked on the left button on the tool bar.

You can change the font, by going to the กFormat Menuก and choosing กFontก. Choose your Font size and the type of Font you want. Click กokก. NOTE: Be sure you choose a Font that is easily read. If you don’t, you may as well not have a business card.

NOTE: If you create your card and don’t like the way it looks, you can undo the changes, by going to the กEdit Menuก and choose กUndoก. You can also highlight the area you want to do over and undo it the same way.

If you create your Business Card with a URL or Email, be sure to turn off the hyperlink like we did for our Letterhead.

You can print the Business Cards your self or have them printed professionally. For best results, they should be printed on 250 gsm or thicker paper. Most printers can only handle 160 gsm, therefore you might want to go the professional printer route. If you are operating on a small budget, like most small businesses, print them yourself. That way the cost will just be for the ink and paper.

If you choose to have them printed professionally, you will need to copy it to a floppy disk. To do this, go to กstartก กprogramsก กWindows Explorerก . Click on the + next to กMy Documentsก. Choose the folder your Business card is in and doubleclick on it. On the right side of the screen, you will see the file, กBusiness Cardก. Rightclick on it and choose กSend Toก 3 1/2 Floppy Aก. It will then be copied to your Floppy Disk. Take this disk to the professional printing place and they will do the rest.

If you choose to print them yourself, you will need to create more than one card and buy the paper to print them on [at least 160 gsm].

To create more than one card, we will copy and paste the original card. Click inside the card area. Go to the ‘table Menuก กSelectก ‘tableก. Go to the กEdit Menuก and choose กCopyก. Go to the space directly under the first card and hit enter. Go to the กEdit Menuก and choose กPaste Cellsก. A copy of your business card will appear. Continue this process until you finish the first row. Word will automatically move to the second row. Continue this process until the page is full. Go to the กFile Menuก, choose กPrintก. Under กPage Rangeก, be sure that กallก is selected. Choose the number of copies you want and click กokก.

About The Author

Jane Fulton is Owner & Webmistress of http://janesplace.com กHome For Newbies & Beginning Marketersก. She has been helping them for almost 4yrs now. She publishes a newsletter, Newbie & Affiliate SOS Newsletter. It appears online twice a month. If you like these กHow Toก type of articles, subscribe to her newsletter at: http://janesplace.com/sos.htm

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 22, 2004

by Jane Fulton

WebSafe Fonts for Your Site

WebSafe Fonts for Your Site

by: Mario Sanchez

Choosing the right typeface for your website copy is important, since it will affect the way your readers perceive your page (serious and formal, or friendly and casual). Aside from this, there are also important usability concerns. For example, some font types are more easily readable than others, and some are more widely available.

You want to choose font types that:

fit the character of your site,

are easy to read on a computer screen, and

are widely available across many browsers and operating systems.

There are basically two types of fonts: serif and sans serif. Serif fonts are those that have fine crosslines at the extremities of the letter. Sans serif (กsansก being the French word for กwithoutก) are fonts that don’t have serifs. The most common serif font is probably Times New Roman. Arial is an example of a common sans serif font.

Letกs go briefly through the most popular font types and evaluate their availability, readibility and character:

Arial:

Availability. Thoroughly available. It is probably the most common sans serif font. It is the default font for Windows, and it first shipped as a standard font with Windows 3.1.

Readability On Screen. Not the worse but definetely not the best, especially at small sizes, when it becomes too narrow and the spacing between characters too small.

Character. Has a streamlined, modern look but is also plain and boring.

* For Mac users, the equivalent of Arial is Helvetica.

Times New Roman:

Availability. Thoroughly available. It is probably the most common serif font. It is the default font for web browsers. It was first shipped as a standard font with Windows 3.1

Readability On Screen. Acceptable for font sizes of 12pt. and up, but terrible for smaller sizes.

Character. Serious, formal and old fashioned.

For Mac users, the equivalent of Times New Roman is Times.

Verdana:

Availability. A widely available sans serif font, Verdana was first shipped with Internet Explorer version 3, when the exponential growth of the Internet demanded a new font that was easy to read on the screen.

Readability On Screen. Exceptional. Itกs wide body makes it the clearest font for onscreen reading, even at small sizes.

Character. Modern, friendly and professional.

Georgia:

Avaliability. Good. It is a serif font introduced by Microsoft with Internet Explorer version 4, when the need for a serif font which much better readability than Times New Roman became evident.

Readibility On Screen. Very good. It is the best serif font for online reading, since it was specifically designed for that purpose.

Character. Modern, friendly and professional.

Microsoft has also popularized two more fonts: Comic Sans Serif and Trebuchet.

Comic Sans Serif was launched with Internet Explorer verion 3 and mimics the hand writing used in comics. It is easy to read and is informal and friendly, but it is not considered appropriate for more serious, professional sites.

Trebuchet is another sans serif font, similar to Arial but with more character, although it can be difficult to read in small sizes.

Finally, we can mention Courier New, a serif font that was widely popular with old, mechanical typewriters, and that is now used only to present simulated computer code (if you need to present snipets of sample HTML code in your web pages, this is the font to use.)

Therefore, from a usability perspective, the clear winner is Verdana. If you are inclined to use a serif font, Georgia is the best option. Arial remains a good option for specific parts of text, like headlines and titles, where a different font must be used and you can use larger sizes.

You can freely reprint this article. Just include the following resource box at the end:

About The Author

Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net ), an online collection of web design and Internet marketing articles and resources. You can freely reprint his weekly articles in your website, ezine, newsletter or ebook.

This article was posted on July 31, 2003

by Mario Sanchez