Self-Publisher Typography Basics: Designing Readability into Text

Sure, it might seem self-explanatory. In order to get something read, it needs to be readable - and what do we put a bunch of words down for but to be read? It's not always that simple.

Even if you do know the difference between a Serif and a Sans Serif font, can you quickly state off the top of your head what style, size, and weight it should be for a caption? Most of us don't have a clue.

As a self-publisher, knowing the typography basics becomes a really big deal. You don't have a design team working on your wonderful manuscript to make sure it looks just as wonderful in the hands of your reader. And most self-publishers don't have a degree in communication design - many have degrees, even PhD's, in other subjects ... but that won't help you make your writing readable.

So a breakdown of readability and how to design it into your text is right at your fingertips.

Consider Audience Background First

Before you even dive into the basic rules of readability, make sure that you ask yourself a few questions about the people most likely to read your writing. These questions will plug right into the rules and help further guide you:

*How well does your reader read?
*How well does your reader see?
*How much interest will your reader have in the subject before they begin?
*Should your text be seen as modern or traditional?

A reader who is just fanatically interested in your topic will probably force their way through anything you might write, even if it's hard to do. But no one wants to make a reader force themselves; we want them to love our writing for our writing! So ask yourself the above questions and really consider your answers before you go on.

Basic Rules of Readability

As a general rule of thumb, no publication (whatever its type - novel, brochure, flyer, business card, website, etc.) should contain more than two different fonts. This is the cardinal rule, the one that if you decide to break it, you better have a very darn good reason. Why? Having more than 2 fonts distracts the reader, making them lose track of the content. 'Nuff said.

The next basic rule is to keep your copy clean by using serif and sans serif fonts where they belong. Serif fonts belong in the body of your writing. In a novel, this would be the paragraphs - not the chapter heading. In a brochure, it's all the text that go under a heading. In other words, if it's not a heading, it's "body" and it should be a serif font. Sans Serif fonts belong in the headings.

So we've got the idea of fonts down. Now we need to look at the rules governing the size of those fonts. The easiest way to figure out what font sizes to use for each element of a piece is to go in a specific process:

1. Type a few paragraphs (they can be total nonsense) of body text. This text should be sized between 9 and 12 points. Take your best guess, and then print the paragraphs out. Is the size large enough for an audience that can't see too well if they're your target audience? Your target audience might be the twenty-somethings, though, who have no problem seeing or reading well. If this is the case, you'll want to make sure you're not boring them with too-large text that takes up more space. Based on your print, consider adjusting the text size.

2. Type a sub-heading above your body text. Again, it can be complete nonsense. Sub-headings are the ones that go beneath main headings, so the font size will be smaller than a main heading but larger than body text. How much larger? Try going for 2 points more than body text.

3. Type a heading above your sub-heading. The size of the heading text needs to be twice that of the sub-heading. So, let's say that my body text was 10 points, and my sub-heading was perfect at 12 points. I'll need to set my heading to at least 24 points, then.

The reasons behind the varying levels of text size is that it conveys importance. The larger the text, the more significant it is.

When to Break the Rules

Most simply, you should break the rules any time you have a good reason to. But that's not a great answer, so I'll try to give a couple of examples.

In the questions you asked yourself first, the first two were important to the size your body text should be. If your readers don't read well (if they're just starting to read, for example) or don't see well, you'll want to use a larger font. Most places will say that 12 points is the maximum you should go with, but you'll really need to use your own judgement. Different font types (Garamond vs. Times New Roman, for example) look a little bit different and can actually print out looking larger or smaller even though they're both set to 12 points.

The third question - how much interest does your reader have in the subject - is another important clue. Not only will a reader invested in the topic be more likely to forgive a harder reading experience, but you can get away with using a smaller font size to allow for more information in less space.

The last question - should your work be considered modern or traditional - points to one of the biggest rule breakers out there. We've already said that sans serif fonts belong in headers, not in body text ... but if your work needs to be seen as "modern" or will be displayed on a computer screen, you'll want to toss the rule out the window and go only with a sans serif font. For everything.

When you decide to break a readability rule, just make sure you can fully justify doing so to yourself. Is it worth possibly causing your reader to struggle with your writing? Usually not.