Classic Hardcover - Travel Version - Question regarding fonts

[Jeannie1620]

Hello - this is my first time using My Publisher. I am setting up an album for my father-in-law as a gift from our trip to Italy last summer. Depending on how it comes out I will order a modified version for our family! I chose the Travel format and am wondering how the print comes out ... in the preview it looks very light on a lot of pages and I am wondering if I should bold it throughout the book - of if the regular type is easily readable. Some of the font sizes are not that big and that's why I am concerned.

Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated :-)

Thanks -
Jeannie

[irusan]

Hi Jeannie,

The text appears kinda funky on screen, it's true. I won't get into the specific technical reasons why, but here's the high level overview: what you see on screen is not actually the type ('font') but rather an image of the text. For example, if I type "Here's the coolest picture of a fish", what I see on my screen in preview is a graphic of that text.

Depending on your monitor's resolution, the text/graphic may appear perfect, or it may appear fuzzy or soft. That's because for on screen previewing, the image needs to be adjusted based on your monitor's resolution. The particular type of image that's used (JPG) does not re-size very well on screen. That's when you get a soft, or light, rendering of the text.

However, the part of the BookMaker software that's tasked with handling the type when printed is quite good and when you get the final result, the text should be (always has for me) very crisp and easy to read.

With that being said, let me offer a couple of thoughts:

1. If the person you are building the book for is older, use a sans-serif font. These are plain looking fonts without any little 'decorations' on the characters. Common examples are Arial, Helvetica, Futura, etc. Also, use a point size larger than 12 point. If there is too much text for a larger font size, try editing the text to reduce the number of words. Legibility is far more important than verbosity <grin>

2. If there is still too much text, add a text-only page on the left and put the image alone on the right.

3. If eyesight is not an issue, use a serif font (such as Times, Times New Roman, Garamond, etc.) for large blocks of text (3 lines or more) (those little decorations, or serifs, are specifically designed to help the eye recognize the shape of words and flow from word to word).

Anyway, I've never had an issue with the type in the book being a problem and I have not read of any complaints or issues in these forum messages from other users, either.

HTH,

Rob

[Jeannie1620]

Thank you Rob! I was worrying about that and I will go through and see what modifications I need to make as far as the fonts. It is for an older person, so I'll make sure I've got the right fonts put in there for him.

I appreciate all the advice!

Jeannie