Letter Compositions, ContinuedLegibility(Continued)SIZE: Letter size affects how easily text is read. Inappropriately smallletters strain the viewer’s eyes and patience and will likely not be read.Limit lettering to essential information. Limit lettering on art intended forviewgraphs or slides to approximately 8-10 words per frame. If letter size isset, change the x-rating of the letter to improve legibility without changingletter size or style.SPACING BETWEEN LETTERS: To give words the appearance of havinguniformly spaced letters, make the areas between letters nearly equal. Equalspacing between letters is called mechanical spacing. Sometimes equalamounts of space between letters create too much white space and breaks upthe appearance of the word. If this occurs, reexamine the areas betweenadjacent letters and increase or decrease them accordingly. Arbitrarilyadjusting space between letters based on overall appearance is referred to asoptical spacing. Letterspacing refers to the addition of space between letters.Letterspacing makes short words or titles appear longer. Decreasing spacebetween letters is called kerning.Figure 5-37 illustrates the difference between mechanical spacing and opticalspacing.Figure 5-37.—Mechanical and optical spacing.Continued on next page5-36
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