Comments on: How To Ruin Your Advert

By: Megan Dovey

Megan Dovey — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:42:08 +0000

Thank you, thank you at last some one who as picked up on what I’ve been saying for years.

I receive e-mails all the time that I can’t read, the reason is I have dyslexic.
They come in too small typeface, fonts I can’t see, coloured text on solid background that don’t work for me, and the post is the same a lot of letters come in times front, if its under 20 I can’t read it,
I find verdana, bitstream, vera and sans best for me, I don’t have to change anything to read it but lots of others come in and the first thing I have to do is change the font and or size that’s if I can if not I have to wait and ask my husband to read it out for me.
Barclay’s bank is a good one, they just change their site now they print on screen in pale blue I can’t see it, so to bank on line I need someone to read the boxes for me, not a good thing, I’ve reported it.

By: Jonathan Jay

Jonathan Jay — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:18:42 +0000

This particular bulletin really stirred up a hornet’s nest!

We had people calling into the office pointing out that the email itself was in a sans serif font and surely a contradiction to what the article was about.

Some were outraged over this apparent contradiction!

It brings up the interesting point of readability on a computer screen rather than on a piece of paper.

Our article was about ensuring the readability of your message when communicating in print – and as has been pointed out, a different set of rules apply to on screen readability.

The bottom line is – some fonts are easier to read than others and your target market can also influence the size of the font (for example, an older target market might appreciate a larger font etc).

At the end of the day, if your message can’t be read easily, then your chances of selling to that person diminish.

By: Peter Henry

Peter Henry — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:06:49 +0000

All good advice and it is also worth remembering to stick to one type face and don’t use a wide variety of colours. Both these errors make your communication look messy and really amateur

By: John Richards

John Richards — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:03:39 +0000

I agree with some of the things Michael Masterson recommends and disagree with others.

He’s right about reverse type but wrong about sans serif fonts. The easiest fonts to read resemble your own handwriting, unsurprisingly. Which means Comic sans and, at a pinch arial like you use on this website (there are others).

You might find Type and Layout by C Wheildon (Strathmore Press) useful.

There are also best places to put pictures on a page.

From my own MA(Ed) dissertation you should avoid trying to get your message across using only Labelled and Annotated Illustrations.