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Re: font for "large print" Word document

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From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Dec 20, 2011 8:45AM

2011-12-20 17:18, Bourne, Sarah (ITD) wrote:

> I have been asked about the best font and font size
> to use for making a "large print" version of a document

I think you will find even experts disagreeing when it comes to
legibility of fonts, and legibility is in part a subjective matter - it
partly depends on what the user is accustomed to.

I would not worry too much about the choice of font, as long as
completely unsuitable fonts (like monospace fonts or Comic Sans for copy
text) are excluded. Personally, I would use Cambria, which is better
known as suitable for screen, but it's a well-designed serif font that
looks fine in large size, too. Compared with Times fonts, for example,
it has modest variation in stroke width.

The language and topic of the text are relevant, too. They may imply
character coverage requirements and stylistic issues. In technical
texts, like instruction booklets, Arial or some other sans-serif font
might be suitable. I would favor Calibri as sans-serif font, since
Arial, Verdana, etc. have so large x-height, i.e., the relative size of
ascenders is so small that it is not that easy to recognize words from
their visual patterns as with fonts with smaller relative x-height.

Yucca