Guidelines for Using Text in

Multimedia

Multimedia applications can be flashy; they can bombard the viewer with colors, light, sound, and
incredible tricks of animation. But while colors, animation, and other effects stimulate the imagination
and catch the eye, it is usually the content that is the most important. Many uses of multimedia rely
heavily on text to get their point across, even when that text is tightly integrated into an opulent visual
package.

Text might be the simplest portion of a multimedia experience, but it is often the most important.

Typography
Typography is the process of selecting and arranging typefaces, sizes, and spacing requirements for a
layout, be it for multimedia or the Web. Typography gives a page a certain personality (formal or
informal, modern or classic, ornate or sturdy) and an overall feeling (dense or open, light or dramatic).
“Typographic arrangement should achieve for the reader what voice tone conveys to the listener.” (El
Lissitzky)

Important elements to consider when arranging text are type size (point size), typeface (type font) and
line/letter spacing.

Text is measured in points. Point size of the type is determined by measuring the height of the type body.
The point size is found by measuring the distance from the uppermost limit of an upward-reaching letter
(ascender), such as b, f, h, k, or l; to the lowermost limit of a downward-projecting letter (descender),
such as g, j, p, or y.
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1 point equal 0.0138 inch and 72 points equals 1 inch. So a 72 point font will be 1 inch in height.

Text sizes usually used for reading matter and/or body copy is 9- to 12-points. Display sizes usually
used for headlines (heads), titles, and subheadlines (subheads) is 14 points and larger.

Type Font is the collection of all the letters, figures, symbols, punctuation, and special characters of a
particular typeface in a certain point size.
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A Family of type consists of all variations of a single typeface and includes the different weights, width,
slants, and styles, such as italic, boldface, lightface, condensed, expanded versions, thin, ultra light, heavy
and compressed.

Typeface is an entire family of letters of a particular design. Typefaces have a profound effect on the
design of your work. Each has a personality of its own. A typeface either has or does not have serifs.
Serifs are the ending strokes on the arms, stems, and tails of some typeface designs. If a typeface has
serifs it is termed a roman typeface. Mostly used for body text because they are more readable than the
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other font types. Examples of serif fonts include but are not limited to Times New Roman, Palatino,
Courier, Times, and Garamond.

Sans serif (without serifs) fonts do not contain the ending strokes. They are easier to read at very large
and especially at very small sizes and are good for captions, very small text (6 points and smaller), and for
titles and subheads (14 point and larger) to contrast body text. Examples of sans serif fonts include but
are not limited to Helvetica, Universe, and Futura.

Script and Cursives typefaces imitate handwriting that appear to be drawn with pen and ink. The letters
of a script typeface are joined, whereas the letters of a cursive typeface are not. They are typically used
to indicate quality or importance. Examples of script and cursive fonts include but are not limited to
Brush Script, Zaph Chancery, Smell Roundhand, and Shelley Allegro.
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The Color of type refers to the overall tone, or texture, of the type; the lightness or darkness, which varies
from one typeface and style to another; and also the evenness of the type as determined by the spacing.

The Personality of a typeface refers to a look that makes it more or less suited for a particular type of job.
Confident, elegant, casual, bold, novel, romantic, friendly, stylish, nostalgic, classic, delicate, modern,
crisp, etc.

“Each typeface, like a human face, has a subtle character all its own.” (Roger Black)

Leading is the term used to refer to the vertical spacing between lines of type (Line Spacing). It is
measured in points from the baseline of one line to the baseline of the next line. The amount of leading
can add to or detract from how well the text looks.
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Letterspacing refers to the amount of space between individual characters. It can degrade the word
shapes and make them harder to read.

Kerning is the process of subtracting minute increments of space from between certain character pairs in
order to improve their fit and therefore make them more eye-appealing.

Tracking is a character-spacing option that permits the user to specify a small increment of space that is
to be uniformly removed from between all characters.
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Font Issues
Perhaps the most important thing to remember when dealing with text is that fonts vary from computer to
computer. While operating systems like Windows and Mac OS each come with a "core" set of fonts, those
sets can be very limited. Furthermore, the included fonts are often very simple, so if you find yourself
using a fancy font while designing your multimedia presentation or Web site, there is a good chance that
many viewers will not have the font.

You may have seen Web sites that have a message on their home page saying "This site looks best with
the _____ font – Click here to download it." These Webmasters are relying on the audience to take the
time to download and install the font. Some people will, but many people surely will not. Programs like
Adobe Acrobat allow you to create PDF files. The Portable Document Format (PDF) was developed so
that documents could be transported and viewed without the requirement that the users viewing the
documents own or have access to the software with which the document was created. For this to work,
users instead need a reader that enables them to view the document in its original layout with all of the
proper fonts and graphics included. Because PDF files require PDF readers in order to be displayed, these
files always look as they were designed to look. They handle any font, any layout and can be viewed
from any type of computer. This makes this file format extremely versatile.

Accuracy
It is important to make sure that your term papers and homework all contain proper grammar and good
spelling. It is just as important that the text in your multimedia is written and spelled correctly. Many
multimedia applications contain built-in spelling checkers. If yours does not, consider writing and
revising the text in a word processing program first, check the spelling and grammar, then copy and paste
into the other application. Remember to review your final document carefully because spelling checkers
may not catch all errors.
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Sources
Coorough, C. (2001). Multimedia and the Web. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc.
Lake, S. E. & Bean, K. (2004). Multimedia and Image Management. Mason, OH: Thomson
SouthWestern.
Shuman, J. (2002). Multimedia Concepts, Enhanced Edition—Illustrated Introductory. Boston,
MA: Thomson Course Technology.
Solomon, A.W. (2004). Introduction to Multimedia. Woodland Hills, CA: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.
Vaughan, T. (2001). Multimedia: Making it Work (5th ed.). Berkley, CA: Osborne/McGraw-Hill.