What's Appropriate?

Choosing an appropriate typeface is very important. Similar to people's voices, different typefaces have different timbres. They can be happy, sad, loud, dark, or violent. Therefore, it is important to choose a typeface that reflects the content of a document. Choosing a typeface with an appropriate tone will help set the mood that the document as a whole is meant to convey. If you want your document to be taken seriously, don't use an ornate typeface or you will lose credibility. If the most important thing about your document is that it must be easy to read or that it looks traditional, then the typeface you select must fit the criteria.

Before we move on, we need to attend to a vocabulary issue. You may be wondering about the word font. When we are in an academic or work environment, or even when we are chatting with friends, we normally refer to fonts as opposed to typefaces. Typefaces are simply groups of fonts with similar characteristics. Let's look at the major typefaces and learn a little about what they are used for.

Major Typefaces

Serif typefaces: The word "serif" refers to the characteristic features at the ends of glyph strokes. Times New Roman and Baskerville are very common examples of serif fonts. Compare the following sample of Times New Roman text to the next example of Helvetica text. Note the embellishments on the ends of the Times New Roman characters.

Sans-serif typefaces: These are typefaces without (hence the word sans) serifs. Helvetica and Arial are the most common sans-serif fonts, and Helvetica is quite possibly one of the most popular fonts in the world. There are Latin, Greek, Japanese, and Hebrew versions of Helvetica fonts. (There is even a documentary about Helvetica font!)

Script typefaces: These typefaces imitate handwriting and are generally not suitable for large amounts of text. Examples of script fonts are Coronet and Zapfino. The following is an example of Zapfino.

Ornamental or novelty typefaces: These typefaces should be used exclusively for decoration. They are difficult to read in large bodies of text. The following is a font called Bleeding Cowboys.

Legibility and Readability

The author's choice of typeface or font will directly affect the readability of the text. Using a script font or an ornamental font for the greeting on a wedding invitation might work just fine, but printing the address and time in a font that's difficult to read might cause you to have a low turnout. But it's not just legibility and readability that you should be concerned with.

Because sans-serif fonts have become so commercially visible, serif fonts (modest serif fonts) tend to make a document look less modern. Sans-serif fonts are the primary fonts used for digital media. This very training makes use of a sans-serif font. This isn't to say that serif fonts are not still incredibly popular and very respected. The New Yorker uses the same serif style typeface that it's used for decades. In fact, most novels, books, and longer printed works make use of serif fonts. But you should be aware of the impressions the font you are using might give.

When applying for a job for a leading Internet firm, it might be a good idea to use a modern looking sans-serif typeface for your résumé. When applying for a job at an insurance company or in a more conservative office environment, you may find that a serif typeface is better suited for your needs. One of the best pieces of advice we can give you is to look at the company's website and try to determine what kind of typeface would be in line aesthetically with the company's image. Use it to your advantage.

Italicized or Bold Type

Some writers love to italicize and bold words throughout their documents, and often there is no method to their madness. They will italicize and bold words at random, often for emphasis, without any real consistency. However, there are specific rules and reasons for italicizing and bolding words. Typically, these rules are outlined in the style guide that the writer is supposed to apply to their document, although there are documents that lack specific guidelines. If the writer does not follow specific guidelines, look for consistency. When it comes to italicizing and writing words in bold type, less is more!

Let's take a look at some of the rules for italicizing and bolding text that are fairly consistent from style guide to style guide.

What Should Be Italicized?

Most major style guides indicate that the following items should be italicized:

• Titles of works, such as books, plays, short stories, long poems, newspapers, magazines, titles of pamphlets, and famous speeches

• Titles of movies, radio programs, and television series

• Names of operas and long musical compositions

• Names of paintings and sculptures

• Names of ships and other named vessels

• Legal cases

• Scientific names (genus and species)

If the writer is referring to a specific word, letter, or phrase as a word, letter, or phrase, it should be italicized.

• An extra p was added.

• The word stingy had a negative connotation.

Foreign words are constantly being incorporated into the English language. Foreign words that are well-known, such as "vice versa," are not italicized, whereas foreign words that would be unfamiliar to readers, such as tabula rasa, are italicized. This is often based on the writer's or editor's judgment. There is some variation between style guides on what words should be italicized, so always keep the appropriate style guide handy when proofreading. However, this is a pretty standard list of things to be italicized.

What Shouldn't Be Italicized?

While most book titles are italicized, there are a few that aren't; the titles of long sacred works such as the Bible or the Koran are not italicized (specific versions of sacred works, such as The NIV Study Bible, would be italicized). The titles of book chapters are not italicized either but are enclosed in quotation marks. This is similar to television series and the names of each of their episodes. The television series title is written in italics, and the episode titles are written in quotation marks. If punctuation is included in the title of a work, such as Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Places You'll Go!, the punctuation is italicized as well. If an italicized word or phrase is used in a sentence but the rest of the sentence is not in italics, don't italicize any surrounding punctuation. In the following sentence, the period would not be italicized.

• I have never seen anything more beautiful than the Mona Lisa.

Writers for blogs and online sites often put words in quotation marks when they would normally be written in italics. This is because it can be difficult to read italics on a computer screen. Keep this in mind when you are proofreading, and also keep the recommended style guide handy.

Bold Type

There are very few instances where words should be written in bold type. The best way to know if a word should be written in bold type is to check the recommended style guide. As with italics, many writers like to use bold type to emphasize a word. This is not the proper way to use bold type in academic documents. Instead, use italics.

One of the most common uses of bold type is for headings and titles. Many writers use bold type when they are writing headings and titles to attract the reader's attention. Some style guides allow this, and others don't. If a writer chooses to use bold type, please check their style guide to make sure that this is allowed. If the client has not specified a style guide, then make sure that they are using bold type consistently throughout their document.

The only time that words should be in bold type in a document is if they are keywords that are further explained in a Key Word List at the end of the document. Writing words in bold type to emphasize a word is typically not appropriate. For more information on words being written in bold type, check the recommended style guide.

Summary

When a document gets to the proofreading stage and major changes and revisions have been made, it's much easier to make evaluations about the typeface or font chosen for the document. Remember that the font chosen for the text can, in some ways, be as much of an influencing factor on the readability of a text as word choice. Sans-serif fonts are the choice of the digital age, while serif fonts still reign supreme in print. But there are exceptions. Shorter documents, such as résumés and cover letters, often benefit from being printed in sans-serif fonts.

Last Updated: 09/09/2022