Typography, Typesetting, and Font Tips
I haven't seen any topic specifically about typography, and considering the sheer quantity of nigh-illegible text used in various manips, I feel like it would be useful to have one. I put these tips into a loosely prioritized order based on how big of a difference they make and how often I see problems with them.
• Maximum 70 characters per line; shorter is better.
That includes spaces and punctuation. As a reader's eyes move horizontally across a line of text, they can lose track of their vertical position, which slows them down when they have to "jump" back to the far left side to start the next line. The absolute max for a single readable line is about 90 characters, but you want to be well below that. If there is a lot of text, you also want to keep a minimum length of about 45 characters per line, but that's not a common problem. If you have too much text that you need to fit into a wide, short space, then your best bet is to use multiple columns so that you can control the line length.
• Use 1.3x line spacing.
Crowded text interferes with vertical position tracking too, and also creates visual "noise" when the reader's brain is trying to distinguish the silhouette of letters. There's a separate problem if the lines are too loose, but that's relatively rare. Even this forum's default line spacing, for instance, is way too tight.
• Never use all caps.
Lower-case letters have a lot of different silhouettes: some letters are tall or drop below the baseline, some are wide others thin, et cetera. These different shapes speed up letter recognition, making it easier to read text. UPPER CASE LETTERS ARE ALMOST ALL SIMPLE RECTANGULAR SILHOUETTES, SO THEY TAKE LONGER TO READ AND QUICKLY BECOME TIRING TO THE HUMAN EYE. This is less of an issue in small doses, but there's still basically no argument in favour of doing it, so you shouldn't.
• Don't use a bad font.
It's still extraordinarily common for folks to use hard-to-read fonts that are made to resemble handwriting, or to choose stylized fonts that sacrifice readability for flavor. Even a bland, overused font like Helvetica would be better in almost all of these cases, because heavy stylization distracts from the content of the text. If you absolutely must use a thematic font, remember that less is more, and never sacrifice legibility. If you don't have an eye for legibility, then stick with something safe. You could do a lot worse than Fira Sans or Source Serif Pro, both of which are totally free to download and use.
• Maintain a consistent, contrasting background.
"Noisy" backgrounds (with lines that overlap the lines of the letters) force the reader's brain to parse which lines belong to text and which don't, which slows things down. Most of the internet has already figured out that you also need brightness contrast for legibility, which lots of folks accomplish by using the outlining trick (bright letters with a drop shadow or dark outline; dark letters with a bloom or bright outline). That works, but solid panels and speech balloons are better.
Examples!
Too many characters per line, inconsistent and crowded line spacing (good font choice, though):
hypnohub.net/post/show/93447/
Too many characters per line, all caps (good line spacing though):
hypnohub.net/post/show/94460/
Noisy text background, all caps, crowded text:
hypnohub.net/post/show/94593/
Egregious stylized font choice:
hypnohub.net/post/show/94490/
• Maximum 70 characters per line; shorter is better.
That includes spaces and punctuation. As a reader's eyes move horizontally across a line of text, they can lose track of their vertical position, which slows them down when they have to "jump" back to the far left side to start the next line. The absolute max for a single readable line is about 90 characters, but you want to be well below that. If there is a lot of text, you also want to keep a minimum length of about 45 characters per line, but that's not a common problem. If you have too much text that you need to fit into a wide, short space, then your best bet is to use multiple columns so that you can control the line length.
• Use 1.3x line spacing.
Crowded text interferes with vertical position tracking too, and also creates visual "noise" when the reader's brain is trying to distinguish the silhouette of letters. There's a separate problem if the lines are too loose, but that's relatively rare. Even this forum's default line spacing, for instance, is way too tight.
• Never use all caps.
Lower-case letters have a lot of different silhouettes: some letters are tall or drop below the baseline, some are wide others thin, et cetera. These different shapes speed up letter recognition, making it easier to read text. UPPER CASE LETTERS ARE ALMOST ALL SIMPLE RECTANGULAR SILHOUETTES, SO THEY TAKE LONGER TO READ AND QUICKLY BECOME TIRING TO THE HUMAN EYE. This is less of an issue in small doses, but there's still basically no argument in favour of doing it, so you shouldn't.
• Don't use a bad font.
It's still extraordinarily common for folks to use hard-to-read fonts that are made to resemble handwriting, or to choose stylized fonts that sacrifice readability for flavor. Even a bland, overused font like Helvetica would be better in almost all of these cases, because heavy stylization distracts from the content of the text. If you absolutely must use a thematic font, remember that less is more, and never sacrifice legibility. If you don't have an eye for legibility, then stick with something safe. You could do a lot worse than Fira Sans or Source Serif Pro, both of which are totally free to download and use.
• Maintain a consistent, contrasting background.
"Noisy" backgrounds (with lines that overlap the lines of the letters) force the reader's brain to parse which lines belong to text and which don't, which slows things down. Most of the internet has already figured out that you also need brightness contrast for legibility, which lots of folks accomplish by using the outlining trick (bright letters with a drop shadow or dark outline; dark letters with a bloom or bright outline). That works, but solid panels and speech balloons are better.
Examples!
Too many characters per line, inconsistent and crowded line spacing (good font choice, though):
hypnohub.net/post/show/93447/
Too many characters per line, all caps (good line spacing though):
hypnohub.net/post/show/94460/
Noisy text background, all caps, crowded text:
hypnohub.net/post/show/94593/
Egregious stylized font choice:
hypnohub.net/post/show/94490/
