Page 284 - The Creative Training Idea Book Inspired Tips and Techniques for Engaging and Effective Learning

lucas chap 08 11/20/02 12:49 PM Page 273
Typeface Styles Making Your Visual Message Sizzle 273
Generally, fonts used for training materials fall into two classifications—serif and sans serif.
Serif fonts look like the text (Times New Roman) in this section up to this paragraph and
have little finishing strokes at the end of each letter. Sans serif fonts look like the font in
these sentences (Arial) and do not have the finishing strokes. These are sometimes
referred to as “block” letters.They provide a clean, crisp look and as you will read later,
work well on flip charts and projected visual aids because they are easy to read from
a distance.

Typeface Appearance

Because most books, newspapers, and other printed material have a similar printed
appearance, your learners will come to class with expectations of seeing a similar look.
If you deviate too much with typeface appearance, you may actually distract participants
and reduce their comprehension of what they read while increasing the time it takes
them to read it.

Case Usage
ONE ASPECT OF READABILITY IS THE ALTERNATE USE OF UPPER- (CAPITAL) AND
LOWERCASE (SMALL) LETTERS. WHEN YOU VIOLATE THIS PRINCIPLE AND USE
ONLY UPPERCASE, IT CAUSES READERS TO PAUSE AND MAKES READING MORE
DIFFICULT. To reduce participant anxiety and aid comprehension, stick with the stan-
dard practice of using a combination of uppercase letters at the beginning of a sentence
or proper noun. Use lowercase for the remaining letters and words in a sentence. An
exception to this guideline is when writing headers. Using all capital letters for headers
can actually help draw attention and make the word(s) stand out from other text.

Bold and Italics

Other aspects of typeface style include making words bold and using italics, as I have just
done, or combining bold and italics to emphasize key words or text. Throughout this
book, I have used bold primarily to indicate words defined in the Glossary and italics
to indicate the title of books, articles, chapters, and other referenced or important mate-
rial. I have used a combination of bold and italics for certain text (e.g., quotes) and
primary subheaders.

Color

As you read in earlier chapters, brain-based research has shown the importance of
color in attracting attention. You can use this fact to draw attention to headers, special
words, text, and graphics that accompany text, or to make certain letters stand out in
your materials. If you do use color, remembering the following points can increase the
ability of learners to follow your message easier.