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Subject:Re: The readability of fonts in a PDF From:Christine -dot- Anameier -at- seagate -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 1 Aug 2001 10:01:33 -0500
Jessica Nealon asked for information on Verdana and Georgia. I've run
across a few things about those two fonts:
from http://classes.monterey.edu/CST/CST251-01/world/week10/ .... this
summary:
>Verdana & Georgia - Typefaces for the Screen
>Georgia - serif font
>Verdana - sans serif font
>You read about Georgia and Verdana fonts, typefaces that were
>designed for the screen, for optimal use online. You ask, "What makes them
different?"
>
>They have a larger x-height - longer ascenders (d, l, h) and descenders,
>(g, y, p). Letter combinations don't have ligatures, meaning that certain
>letter combinations don't touch (fi, fl, and ff). Spacing is much looser,
>and the uppercase characters are a pixel taller. The bottom line is
>improved readability.
I'm sure there's more out there (I'd recommend a Google search), but those may be a helpful start.
PDF has some font issues of its own--I think some people feel the font
anti-aliasing impairs readability because it's blurry. I've seen that
argument in various places (I don't recall where, though) although
personally I disagree with it. I tried turning off anti-aliasing once in a
PDF, and it was not a pretty sight. :) On the plus side, you can embed the
fonts--not everyone has them installed on their systems.
Everything I've read has suggested that sans serif faces (like Verdana) are
preferable to serif faces for online viewing.
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