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Should I Choose the Bold Font or Choose "Bold" from the Style Menu?
by Jess Fraser, staff writer —
W
hen using a Word, you've probably noticed that you can choose to style fonts (making them bold, italic, etc.) using the "style menu" or, you can choose the specific member of the font family from the font menu. Which is better? The real font is better and here are two reasons why.

1. Looks can be deceiving
Though bolding of Futura Regular might look just fine on the screen, it may not print on a laser printer. If a printer font actually exists for that version of Futura Bold, then the vendor may or may not have set up the font to match it up with the type styling menu. It will look okay on-screen because the program is doing as it's told (make this font look bold).

2. Not a pretty sight
The other reason for not using type styling is aesthetics. When a regular or book font is bolded, what you get is a thicker version of that font. Bold members of a font family have been carefully drawn so that they still retain the aesthetic quality and sharp detail of the regular version. In the case of italicizing, the letterforms are redrawn while the characters still maintain the look of the font family. Italic styling a regular version of a font merely slants the font. The characters don't look italic. They look like they're falling over!

The bottom line
Whenever possible, always try to use the font menu to choose a font style and stay away from using the style menu. Your printed pages will be more consistent and be less likely to have problems down the road.

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