Font Elements

Font Style

The font style you choose should be scalable.  This means that a font choice should be made based on the ability to see the font in various sizes.  Some fonts at first look may appear to have no problems with readability however, once you view the font in a smaller size, it becomes much more difficult to read. For example, the letter x viewed in Times New Roman appears quite readable in a 14 point font, but when it is viewed in an 8 point font it can become a bit more difficult to read.

X X.

The reason for this is because the lines that make the x in the Times New Roman font are two different thicknesses.  The thinner line in the x becomes difficult to see with smaller font sizes.  Serif Versus Sans-Serif.

Text With Strike Through

Refrain from visual cues such as text with strike through to convey meaning.  The reason for this is that a screen reader or assistive technology will read the text without mentioning the style of the text.  When text is bold, italicized, or struck through to emphasize meaning or otherwise convey meaning, a person who relies on assistive technology with not be given any indication to the meaning that the text style is attempting to convey.  If this is a necessity such as materials training the use of the strikethrough function within Microsoft Word, I would recommend inserting an image of the word with the text struck out and give the alt description stating the word and that it is struck out.  This will cause a break in the sentence when the screen reader verbally reads it.  For that reason it is best to try to find an alternative to conveying the intended meaning.

Font / Text Size

The font sizes used in courses should be from 11 to 14 point fonts.  These font sizes are based on a research study conducted by Julia Kulla-Mader that focused on the readability of font among users in many different age groups as well as many different

It is always a good idea to give the user a few choices that they can make to have your web content best suit their needs.  Control over the display options should be placed somewhere at the top of the main page.  This toggle is typically found to the right hand side of the page. The ability to choose your font size will allow your user to have a better experience with your site based on to user’s preference. The default font setting should be one that you choose for how you would like your site to be viewed, with the other font options getting incrementally larger.  Based on the recommended font sizes, you could have the default be an 11 point font for regular text, 12 point for sub headings, and 13 to 14 point fonts for main headings.  Menus can be 13 point font as a default.

Font Color

Darker font colors were found to be more readable than lighter colors in general however, it is the contrast between the font color and the background that matters the most.