Quick Fixes for Dark & Murky Photos When using an inexpensive scanner, you'll find that your photos are often dark and murky. Unfortunately, they won't look any better when they're printed. The best place to fix them is with an image-editing program but, for a quick fix, try …Read more More Good Stuff •  Professionally-designed Word Templates You Can Download •  The Best Word Books at BIG Discounts •  Access to Time-saving Word Shortcuts

Where you are:
      » Home   » Tips   » Text & Type

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.

Tip: Did you know we offer a FREE newsletter? Click here to learn more and to become a FREE Basic Member!

    • The Best Books about Word -- Most 30% OFF!

    • Lots of FREE and Helpful Resources

    • Professional Word Templates You Can Download NOW!

Top

HOME  |  Tips  |  Templates  |  Printing  |  Members  |  Books  |  Links  |  Cart

The information on this site is provided as an educational resource and is not affiliated with Microsoft®.
© Copyright My Design Studio, all rights reserved. Please read our terms of us

This site is best viewed with Internet Explorer 4 (or later) with JavaScript enabled.