It looks pretty, but can they read it?

Current trends in graphic design include using fonts of different sizes in headlines and pull quotes or using a very small font in the margins of magazine articles. You see this especially in magazines where designers have broken many rules in order to achieve “innovative” design. These trends then trickle down to marketing design where they are seen in ads, direct mailers, on web sites, etc.

Such design elements are eye catching and nice to look at, but they can also be difficult to read, lowering reader comprehension. Which means, if people aren't reading your expensively designed marketing collateral, they probably aren't going to respond to it either. If you are putting together an ad, web site or a direct mail piece, consider these following time-tested design rules:

1. In the US, serif typefaces are the easiest to read. In Europe though, people find sans serif easiest to read.

2. Make your web site easy to read by using typefaces that were designed to be easy to read on a computer screen. Some examples are: Georgia (serif) and Trebuchet or Verdana (sans serif).

3. Reverse type (white type on a black background) is much harder to read. Rather than not using this design devise, which can be attention getting, you can assist the reader by keeping the amount of text short and/or the point size large.