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Size: The larger the type the more it jumps out (but
if body text is too large it looks like it's intended for
the blind).
Weight: Use light against bold for emphasis.
Alignment: Flush left, rag right. Remember that in
the West, we read from left to right, so our eyes prefer a
hard edge along the left side. Most body copy these days is
set flush left.
Alignment: Centered. Don't center body copy or much
text at all. Great for big, bold headlines.
Alignment: Flush right, ragged left. Use only in
rare circumstances. Reader's eyes have a hard time finding
the next line.
Alignment: Justified, or force justified. Pushes
type to both edges of margin. Makes nice, straight columns,
but there's a trade off: uneven letterspacing that can create
rivers of white space, epecially if the column width is narrow.
Case: ALL CAPS IS HARD TO READ IN LARGE DOSES but
grabs attention with its authority. Lower case connotes friendly,
low stress, easy text.
Leading: The space between lines. Open it up to invite
busy readers into your text. With too much leading, our eyes
have to leap from line to line.
Space: Use air around words for emphasis, to set them
of, especially if they're bold. Keep spacing consistent, such
as the amount of added "air" between chunks of text.
Text width: Legibility studies show that the ideal
column width is about 36 characters, or 1-1/2 times the alphabet.
Small amounts of text can be placed in narrower columns.
Indents:
use indents to set off a subhead/category by leaving extra
space to the left and/or right margin of the text below.
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