»» Ten Tips on Writing for the Web

In the last post we saw some tips about web design. Here we will see about tips for writing on the web....

Use CSS to set your text at 10 or 12px, which is an optimum size for readability. Use sans-serif text such as Verdana, Arial and Helvetica. You can specify "Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif." as your font in CSS.

The maximum width for easy reading is 400 - 440 pixels. Use tables or CSS to control this. Use absolute control of the width of the text columns. Set them so the lines of type run around 10 to 12 words per line.

Black text on a white ground is the easiest reading. Other colors tend to blur the text slightly because of anti-aliasing. However, a stark white background is hard on the eyes. Use an off-white (a very light grey), or an eggshell blue colored tile for your background. If you prefer to set a color, try pale khaki CCCC99 To relieve the denseness of continuous type, use headlines and subheads.

Use bold ONLY for emphasis, such as in subheads. Text all in bold is fatiguing to read because the blackness of the letters begins leaving shadow trails. It is also confusing to text readers.

Add photos and illustrations to illuminate passages. Make sure you put a minimum of 20px space around your graphics to give them some breathing room. Information is more easily retained in "clusters" which equal about a screen full in length at a time, and then broken by some type of graphic or change in structure.

The change in structure could be no more than a bolded topic header or a drop cap or even the equivalent of a side bar with some information in it.

To relieve the monotony of text, pull out a paragraph to use as a side bar. Or, put a short description into a box with a link to "more" .

Use bullets to

::reduce wasted space
::create visual interest
::make information easier to understand and absorb

Try these tips and improve your writing skills in the web....