Text in multimedia Why would course designers like text? The most inexpensive media to develop Least overhead in storage/transmission But text creation requires skill: Good writing and effective use of fonts

Good multimedia writing Concise: why? Precise and powerful: “That answer is correct” vs. “Terrific!” “quit” vs. “close” vs “out” Write for your audience What background knowledge can you assume? Informal, casual or formal, business-like style? Why is a project’s title important?

The Elements of Style, William Strunk Say it in active voice, not passive: “Genetic algorithms were invented by John Holland in the 1970’s.” “John Holland invented genetic algorithms in the 1970's.” Avoid wordiness: “computer algorithm” vs. just “algorithm” Avoid high-falutin’ phrases: “Appropriate incorporated” vs. “using” Write and rewrite Bear in mind that users won’t read as much on a screen

An example: An introductory screen: “ Within a program that aims to educate you on all aspects of networking, it seems most logical that we begin with the broadest definition of the subject matter itself. What is a network? More specifically, what is a computer network? These answers are not so difficult as you may believe.” I propose rewriting it as: “ What is a computer network?” Why?

Fonts A typeface is a family of graphic characters including many type sizes and styles Times, Courier and Arial are typefaces, each of which include many sizes & styles A font is a collection of characters of a single size & style, belong to a typeface family Typical font styles are boldface, italic, bold italic, and underlined Times is a typeface; Times 12-point italic is a font In computerese, however, people say font when typeface would be more accurate

Parts of graphic characters Font sizes are expressed in terms of points, where one point is.0138 or 1/72 inch, and size is the distance from top of ascenders to the bottom of descenders Serif is decoration at end of letter strokes Times Romans is serif font; Arial is sans serif

Spacing between characters Leading is the space between lines of text Lopuck recommends increasing the leading to improve readability of text on a screen Character metrics are measurements of individual characters Vector-based fonts permit changes to character metrics for interesting effects; bit-based fonts do not Kerning is the spacing between character pairs Some fonts have variable kerning (e.g., Times), so have fixed kerning (e.g., Courier) When is fixed kerning more desirable? What about variable kerning?

Serif or sans serif? Print: serif fonts traditionally used for body text help guide the reader’s eyes along the line of text Headlines use sans serif No need to guide reader’s eyes What about on computer screens? Don’t provide as much resolution as print Sans serif is a little more legible, esp. in smaller sizes

Macintosh standardizes pixels Macintosh: resolution of 72 pixels/inch, corresponding to standard font resolution of 72 points per inch for print Supports WYSIWYG for desktop publishing Standardized pixels as square-shaped, so measurements are even on all sides On PC side, VGA imitated these standards EGA aspect ratio was 1.33:1, taller than wide Mac and VGA both 640x480 square pixels

Postscript Apple spearheaded desktop publishing by adopting Adobe’s PostScript Page description language for printing to Apple’s LaserWriter Characters were stored in a bitmap table representing every character at every size PostScript is vector-based: describes characters in terms of mathematical constructs (e.g., Bezier curves) Facilitates scaling, drawing characters at various sizes and in various resolutions

TrueType But PostScript represents fonts for printer and screen separately Adobe Type Manager accesses a font’s outline in the printer font Scales it to display to the right size on a screen Apple introduces TrueType circa 1989 Only one file per font, for printer & screen, no need for ATM utility to do mapping Both PostScript and TrueType universally available

Anti-aliasing Both PostScript and TrueType fonts allow text to be drawn on any size without jaggies (jagged edges on the outlines of a character) Anti-aliasing exploits color by blending (dithering) colors along the edges of letter

Tips for fonts Avoid decorative (serif) fonts for small sizes Be consistent: standardize on a few fonts Possible exception: attention-grabbing headlines Surround headlines with plenty of white space Use different colors and backgrounds Use ample leading (space between lines) Avoid scrolling text (contiguity principle) Keep lines short (Lopuck recommends 3”) Help user transition from line to line End lines with end of sentence or phrase Convert non-standard fonts to graphics