Readability Tips

So, you are about to spend oodles of dollars to have hundreds or maybe even thousands of copies of your splashy brochure printed. But before signing off on those proofs, have you given any thought as to how readable it is?

According to wikipedia, readability is defined as reading ease and extensive research has shown that easy-reading text improves comprehension, retention, reading speed and reading persistence.

Would you consider your printed piece a winner if your audience reads, understands and retains what you are communicating to them?

It doesn’t take much to improve readability. Although there is plenty written on the subject, here are a few pointers:

• Make sure you provide lots of white space. White space is the area where there is… white space. White space stops things from looking too cluttered or busy. When there is not enough white space, the eye doesn’t know where to focus.
• Make sure the reading level is appropriate for your audience. There are lots of ways to check. Microsoft Word has a readability statistics feature, or you can try online tools such as addedbytes.
• Avoid blocks of text. Keep your paragraphs short, concise and to the point. Don’t make your reader work to find out what you are trying to say.
• Avoid multiple fonts. Too many fonts can be overwhelming and often give the brain no indication of where it should focus.
• Use underlining sparingly. Online, links are indicated by underlining and because people are getting so used to being online, the underlined text can cause the reader to falter.
• If there are any words or sentences that you can delete from your text and still have it retain its meaning, then delete it.

Further reading:
about.com: desktop publishing

Be Sociable, Share!

•