The Art of Using Fonts in Your Writing

Search the Internet for free fonts and you will find literally thousands of typefaces of all types. So how many different typefaces are available when you design a publication, a brochure, an ebook, an annual report or promotional piece? Well, it's not so much how many fonts you can get your hands on as it is how many you should use to make your print or web copy look its best. With the advent of computers and desktop publishing, there are literally tens of thousands of font typefaces you could install on your computer and use to design your publication. Here are some basic things you should know about designing material meant to be read:

1. More than about 2 to 3 fonts in a publication makes it look disorganized. Too many fonts make things look cluttered and disorganized. Plan your font strategy ahead of time.
   
2. Keep fonts in the same font family (Times New Roman, Courier, Lucida, Garamond or other font family). Keeping the fonts in the same font family helps pull your text and headings together visually and helps your document look professional.  
3. Except for title fonts, stay away from very unusual or gaudy fonts. 3D fonts or elaborate fonts like Old English should have a specific purpose for using it. An unusual font supported by appropriate graphics and sparkling text draws readers in and helps you get that first paragraph read. Fonts for titles can be different with regard to serifs, font families, colors and special effects. For instance if your piece is about Western subjects, frontier or nature, you might use one of those log cabin looking fonts or Alamo or something similarly old fashioned. If the text is about city subjects, you might use a neon effects font or something like that.
   
4. Font typefaces provide the body of your copy with a textual color palette. The textual color palette is about the rhythm and clarity of the text; not actually the color of the font typeface. Don't confuse readers by switching fonts in the midst of the flow of your story. Using a coherent font strategy is a way to create a smooth road into your textual argument. 
5. Be careful with coloring your text. You need a really good reason to use blue, red or periwinkle colored text. Use colored text sparingly and only to draw your reader's eyes to important points that lure your reader further into the story you are telling. Just because you can paint your text in every color of the rainbow, doesn't mean you should.
6. Too many fancy flourishes distracts the eyes of your readers. Text and graphics that pull their eyes from the text can break up the flow as they cruise through your publication. Sparse use of headers, fonts, colors, graphics, italics and bold print is better. Save the fancy stuff for key points.
7. Choose serif or san serif fonts and stick to that style throughout. You could mix them up but it's much safer to match serif/non serif headlines, headers, text and inserts. If you don't know what serifs are they are the flourishes that font typefaces either have or do not have. For instance, TIMES is a serif font.  ARIAL and HELVITICA are sans serif (no serifs) fonts.
   

If you've got something to say, it's important to frame it with professional fonts and graphics. It's like framing a picture. The frame sets off the picture and draws your eyes in. In the same way the fonts you use and graphics and pictures frame your story, sales pitch or argument. 

© 2022 by Tom King

References: 

1. How to Choose a Font: 10 Expert Tips for Choosing the Perfect Fonts https://www.envato.com/blog/how-to-choose-a-font/ 

1. Design Shack - How to Pick a Font: 
   https://designshack.net/articles/typography/how-to-pick-a-font/
   

 

Jogging for the Busy Writer

Exercising the Vocabulary: Skill-Tweaking Strategies for Would-Be and Professional Writers

We all get bogged down writing stuff for profit that may or may not be something that's totally in our wheelhouses. Sometimes you just need to do something for yourself. I'd like to invite you writers out there to sign up with Blogspot. This website builder lets you easily build your own weblog. I have six going now. If you want to make a lot of money at blogging, go to Wordpress, but that's not what my Blogspot blogs are for. What I do with them is use them as a personal place for my creative non-commercial stuff and as a dumping place for things I post on forums or on Facebook that I think are particularly erudite and that I hate to just fire off and then forget that I wasted an hour working on that incredibly clever answer to someone's snarky question or comment

Sometimes others' posts and comments can kick you off into a nice essay. So, don't waste it. By creating a humor/philosophy blog, a political blog, a religious blog, a how-to blog (my most popular), a top 10 list blog and a poetry blog, I have a place to put all those bits and bobs I would otherwise waste on mere "comments". Plus, I have a Google Adsense account and have posted their ads on my weblogs. I make a couple of hundred dollars a year off my blogs and the more entries I post, the more money I make on ads. Just make sure to share your new posts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google Plus. You'd be surprised how many people will read your stuff that way and get to know you as an author. THEN when your book comes out, they're more likely to invest in a copy AND you've got a place to advertise your new book.

Much of the content I post, I make deliberately "evergreen" except in the political blog. If a post is tied to a subject, an issue or a solution to a problem, people will keep visiting it. One of my most popular blogs ever was one on how to unstick a sticky piano key. I was looking for instructions on how to do it myself and found that no one had ever written one. So I did it and photographed the steps and wrote it up. I've had more thank-you notes on that one blog than you can know. My build-it-yourself canoe rack for pickups is another one that's done well. People send me pictures of the ones they have built and I post them.

Ever so often I post a link to an old blog on Facebook to generate traffic. I've had a couple of my posts go viral without my name on them. One, a skit based on Abbot & Costello's "Who's on First" bit has Lou buying a computer from Bud. You can look it up on Youtube. Several folk have posted comedic versions of the skit "Lou Costello Buys a Computer" on Youtube. I had to really work to get my name credited as the writer. I retained the copyright but still give permission to any acting teacher that wants to use it for teaching kids comedic timing. It's pretty widely used.

Anyway, you'd be surprised where your work may wind up or who may see it. You may not make a lot of money, but who knows? A pet interest of yours, turned into a blog, just may take off like Michelle Malkin's political blog or Brett McKay's "The Art of Manliness".

The sidebar to the right has links to some of my more popular blogs on this and other blog sites I write and manage. There's no telling what bit of your recycling may catch fire on the Interweb, but if it's not put out there, you'll never know.

At the very least, when you pitch face forward into your keyboard, you won't just leave behind a long string of random letters on the screen and a lot of debt. Your kids, your grieving spouse and your inquisitive grandkids will be able to read all your old blogs and see what is in reality, a personal memoir of you that will hang there in cyberspace for who knows how long after you're gone? (so be careful what you write, that is if you don't want your tombstone pushed over by a lot of angry relatives).

- Tom

P.S. I originally wrote this for a writer's forum and then posted it here on my How-to blog. I guess that makes me a literary recycler.
P.P.S  My poetry weblog is the one where I practice my wordcraft. I highly recommend poetry as a writing exercise. Writing poetry is like jogging for the vocabulary. I have in mind a workbook I intend to do on using writing exercises in poetic forms as a way to hone your vocabulary and sentence structure skills to sharpen your communication. If you'd like to check out my poetry blog, here's the link.

How to Put Downloadable Files on Your Weblog

Sharing files demystified...

I ran into this problem when I started out with this blog. Occasionally I'd want to share a handy file with my readers, but Blogger really didn't have a way to store and disseminate files on your blog.  Here's a handy workaround that allows you to post a link on your blog or even in an email to a friend that allows them to go grab a file you want them to see.  There are a wide variety of online file storage sites. Many are free and most are relatively easy to use.  I stumbled on Google Docs and use it because it's really easy to use.  Here's how to fix it so you can send people a link to upload your files.

1.  Set up an account with Google Docs.  Just click on the link I just gave you and go there to set up an account.  Once you've done it, whenever you want to make a file available, just go to your Google Docs home page.  I've got mine on a tab on my Mozilla Firefox Browser.  One click and I'm there.

2.  When you get to your Google Docs home page. In the top left side of the screen you'll see a red button that says "Create".  Next to it is an up arrow.  Click on the arrow, choose "files" and the page will give you a series of prompts to help you upload your file.  For fun, I uploaded Uncle Tom's Retirement Leisure Interest Inventory, a tool I use to help older folks find ways to have fun they may have forgotten about or didn't know existed.  It's fun to do whatever age you are. 

3. Once your file is uploaded, Google Docs will display a box with the name of the file in it.  To the left of the filename will be the word "Share" in blue letters.  Click on "share".

4. The share menu will open.  Highlighted at the box is the link to the file.  Below that there's a line that tells who has access to the file.  There are three ways you can offer access.

1. To anyone who has the link
2. Public - To anyone on the web
3. Private - only those you give permission to may access the file.

5.  Click on the word "change" and choose one of these three options.  In this case, I've chosen "Public".  Not only people with the link and people I've invited may upload my file, but also anyone who stumbles on my file in a Google Search.

6.  Close the change menu and then copy the link and close the share menu by clicking done.  Now all you have to do is create a hyperlink in your document like this one and then anyone who wants to may click on that link and download the file.

Quick, clean, no additives, no preservatives.

Just make sure not to post things you don't own the copyright to.  That can save you all sorts of trouble.

© 2013 by Tom King