Text

Text may be defined as the words of something written. The letters of these words may be presented in different styles, known as fonts.

Fonts

A font is a complete set of characters in a particular style and typically consists of a full letter set, a number set, and a set of other special characters. A modern computer will have about forty different fonts installed, an older computer less. Computers running on different operating systems (Windows, Mac, Unix etc.) have diferent sets of fonts installed.

A 'font-family' is a group of fonts that exhibit similar characteristics and is a means whereby a webpage designer may indicate to a browser the 'look' of the font that should be displayed. It is a prioritized list of specific/generic font family names to use to display text. If the specified font does not exist the next font is tried. This process continues through the prioritized list until no more are available. If no match is made, the browser default font family should be used. A font family defined thus: "Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" will display the word 'Multimedia' as follows depending on whether each font in turn is found in the list of installed fonts on the computer.

Multimedia		Multimedia		Multimedia
	Vardana		Arial		Helvetica

Although similar in character, each font is subtly different in height, width, weight and shape.

The last item in the list ought to be one of the generic font family names. This is because all browsers have (or should have) a default font defined for each of the generic families and therefore the text will always be displayed in a style approximating to what the designer wanted.

The generic font families are:

serif (e.g., Times)

sans-serif (e.g., Arial or Helvetica)

cursive (e.g., Zapf-Chancery)

fantasy (e.g., Western)

monospace (e.g., Courier)

It can therefore be seen that a change in font could lead to a profound alteration to the appearance of the whole website.

Specific Fonts

Should a designer want a specific font to be displayed then a designer may create a graphic of the text he wishes to display in a specific font and this can then be inserted into the webpage in the appropriate place. Thus a preset piece of text can be displayed in any font irrespective of the fonts actually installed on the computer. It is important to note however that the size of this text will not change according to the preferences the user sets in his or her browser, nor is it practicable to use this method for large blocks of text.

	Curlz MT		Bauhaus 93		Script MT Bold

Colour

The use, or misuse, of colour on Web sites is the source of many a discussion. In the early years of the Internet, nobody using the basic monitors available was able to view in colour. When colour monitors, and perhaps more importantly, colour graphics cards and operating systems capable of supporting the display of colour came along, colour began to be introduced to Web sites. As the graphics cards in computers became more sophisticated it has become possible to display a multitude of colours. However, even today, not everyone has access to a computer capable of discerning the millions of colours possible. Many older machines are only capable of displaying 256 colours. Of these colours only 216 will display exactly the same on PCs and Macs. Machines running Unix may display as few as 16 colours exactly the same as on PCs and Macs!

It is not merely the choice of display colour used for the text that occupies Web designers. The combination of the fore, or text, colour with the background colour is of paramount importance. A bad choice may render a Web page into a reader's nightmare. Not all colour combinations are readable, and many are uncomfortable to view for any length of time. To demonstrate this please use the tools below to view this passage in a variety of fore and back colours and compare the different effects available. Of course, a short passage of text, such as this, may appear acceptable but an entire page may be too much. Also bear in mind that the 16 colours chosen here are nowhere near representative of the full range of colours available.

Text Colour: Aqua Black Blue Fuchsia Grey Green Lime Maroon Navy Olive Purple Red Silver Teal White Yellow

Back Colour: Aqua Black Blue Fuchsia Grey Green Lime Maroon Navy Olive Purple Red Silver Teal White Yellow

There are also colour combinations that are just not acceptable because some people cannot read them: 8% of Caucasian type men and 0.4% of women are colour-blind. Colour blindness is a generic term which covers different types of visual deficiencies related to perception of red, green and blue parts of colour. A useful site is the Vischeck site which enables people with 'normal' colour perception to see what a site looks like to a colour-blind person.

Style

Most fonts and browsers will support the display of different styles. These may be used to; give impact to a particular section of the text, denote a citation, mark an alteration (such as a deletion or an insertion), define a section as being a piece of code. A change in style will draw the reader's attention to the fact that the text is in some way different from the main body of the documant.

Multimedia				Multimedia				Multimedia
	Bold				Italic				Underline
		Multimedia				Multimedia
			Strikethrough				Teletype

Formats

In order to signpost the reader, the text on Web pages is usually formatted using a series of headings.

The main heading

is usually displayed in a format that indicates its importance

and then sub-headings of progressively lesser

importance divide the document into sub-sections.

The main body of the text is displayed in paragraph format. There are several other 'low level' formatting options. Lists have their own style

• such as bullet points
• and indentation

Whereas it is possible to draw attention to a passage by using a block quote: which may just indent the text from the main body or, as here, be displayed in such a way as to highlight its difference.