[bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare Daisy files maintain Bolding, Font point sizes, Italics, and more

  • From: "Judy s." <cherryjam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:15:29 -0600

Quoting Debby Franson <the.bee@xxxxxxxxxxx>:

Hi Debby,

Times Roman isn't a fancy font per se, but it adds a line at right angles or at 45-degree angles to the tops and/or bottoms of several letters and numbers that Arial portrays as simple straight lines. This makes it easier for the sighted reader to distinguish between the letter capital "I" and the numeral "1" for example, which look identical in Arial to the sighted reader. Times New Roman portrays the lower case "a" very differently also. For most sighted readers without impairment, times new roman is an excellent font because of it's accuracy. Arial is too, but Times New Roman is used as the default for all kinds of things.

Having said that, all bets are off when you add in any loss of visual acuity. My vision impaired friends tell me that the little flourishes that make times new roman easier to read for regular sighted reader blur together and make it harder to read for them.

Neither are fixed width fonts. The most common fixed width font that seems to still be around is courier or "courier new."

Hope that helps!  smile.

Judy s.

How about Times New Roman?  Is it a simple font too?  If not, why
aren't we using Ariel?  Also, are they both fixed width fonts?

Debby

At 10:39 PM 11/8/2009, Mayrie ReNae wrote
Hi Monica,

       I think I can accurately answer your wondering as to why bookshare
has chosen its standardized font as Ariel.  Ariel is a very, very simple
font, It is most similar to the letters we learned in preschool as print
letters.  They have few, if any flourishes to complicate the shape of the
letters.  Let me give you an example.



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