Font Layout
Overview
The fonts and layout selected make a difference for students. Creating blocks or
sections of content and making titles or key phrases of text bold are examples of how to
make it easier for the reader to navigate or skim the material in the course. Consider
the impact of:
1. Font Size
2. Font Face
3. Text Block Formatting
Tip 1 - Font Size
The most common problem is text is too small. Accepted guidelines include:
• 12 Point for Body Text - For most documents, body text should be around 12
points.
• 9 Point for Footnotes - If a document contains footnotes or endnotes, the font
size should be around 9 points.
• 24 Point for Presentations – If a Microsoft Office PowerPoint file is designed to
be projected for an audience, the font size should be at least 24 points. Headers
and sub-headers can be much larger, between 40-60 points depending on the
slide layout.
Tip 2 - Font Face
For online reading, sans-serif fonts (e.g., Verdana) are generally considered more
legible than serif fonts (e.g., Times New Roman). Serif fonts have flourishes on most
letters and resemble the look of text created by a typewriter. Sans-serif are fonts
without serif and have a more modern or minimalistic appearance. Recommended
fonts include:
Fonts
Verdana
Lucida Sans (PC) /
Lucida Grande
(Macintosh)
Tahoma
Georgia
Book Antiqua (PC) /
Palatino Linotype (PC) /
Palatino (Macintosh)
Helvetica
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Notes
Sans-serif font created to address the challenges
of on-screen display
Sans-serif font that is the default system font with
Mac OS X
Similar to Verdana with tighter letter spacing – heavy or
bold weight
Serif font designed for clarity on a computer monitor even
at small sizes
Serif font that was originally used in early desktop
publishing and remains widely used
Sans-serif font designed to create a neutral typeface with
great clarity to have a wide variety of use
Font Layout | Texas Woman's University
Arial
Calibri
Trebuchet MS
Century Gothic
Cambria
Garamond
Times New Roman
Comic Sans MS
Sans-serif font that comes in many styles and packaged
with all versions of Microsoft Windows
Sans-serif font designed to replace Times New Roman as the
default typeface in Microsoft Word and replace Arial as the
default in Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook
Sans-serif font and is considered a core font for the Web
by Microsoft
Sans-serif font somewhat modern – light weight
Traditional serif font with even spacing and proportions
designed for on-screen reading
Traditional serif font considered to be among the most legible
and readable serif typefaces
Serif font that is widely used
Sans-serif font that is casual designed to imitate
comic book lettering and used for informal documents
NOTE:
If a document is meant primarily to be printed, other font options can be used.
Tip 3 - Text Block Formatting
Avoid large blocks of italic text, colored text, underlined text, decorative fonts
and capitalized letters. They make text difficult to read. Examples to avoid include:
• All Italics
• All Underlined
• All Colored
• All Decorative or Narrow Font
• All Capitalized Letters
• Justified Text
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Font Layout | Texas Woman's University