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We've dedicated this article specifically to fonts and related usage tips in hopes of helping you make your training not only easier to read, but more beautiful.
Get to know the different types of fonts.
Different fonts carry different meanings. So when choosing a font for your distance learning - think carefully. Always think about who your target audience is - your choice should be tailored to them and your training content. Remember to NEVER use more than 3 fonts - best to use two - one for headings and one for the rest of the text. Another good practice is not to use two fonts from the same family at the same time.
Give your text a consistent look.
Lack of consistency can make your distance learning unreadable. The effect should be the opposite - learners should get used to its structure and focus on the material. To achieve this, position your text in the same place on every screen and use uniform formatting.
Stick to standard fonts.
When choosing the font for your distance learning course, we recommend that you opt for one of the well-known options such as Helvetica, Verdana, Gotham, etc. This will ensure a quality user experience for two reasons:
- These fonts are widely used and most likely all students have them installed on their computers.
- The above fonts render well on all types of devices - desktop and mobile.
Use contrast.
You can use contrast to accentuate key points in your text, but you shouldn't overdo it to avoid the opposite effect. Look for balance and use plenty of blank spaces. Your pages should not be crammed with information as this will make it difficult for your learners and may even put them off learning.
Choose an appropriate font size.
When choosing a font size, you need to consider how good the eyesight of the people you will be training is. In principle, the standard font size for electronic text is 12, but 14 and 16 are also commonly used.
You can use different font sizes for different parts of your text - this will give it a hierarchical feel. You can use a larger font size for headings and subheadings, a standard font size for the body of the text, and a smaller font size for footnotes.
Take line length into account.
Long lines are difficult to read. A general rule you can follow is that line length should be no more or less than 75 characters.
In addition, we recommend that you use left justification - it makes the text easier to read.
Leave spaces.
In addition to leaving spaces between text and images (graphics), you should also leave spaces within the text itself. Divide it into as many paragraphs as possible.
Also experiment with line height, letter spacing and word spacing - when you look at your text it should be 'light' and easy to read.
Familiarise yourself with the rules of online typography.
Online typography, and in particular that specific to distance learning, is guided by a few basic rules. We recommend that you follow them, as this will aid your understanding and absorption of the material included in your distance learning course.
- Avoid underlining parts of your text unless it is a link.
- Avoid italics - they are difficult to read.
- Avoid capitalizing anything - it changes the tone of the training in the wrong direction.
- Avoid using capital letters in the middle of a sentence.
- Avoid central alignment of text as this slows reading.
- Remember that bold is mainly for headings - not for text.
- Coloured text is difficult to read - black letters on a white background are always the best solution.
