Legal Writing

Image & Text ? Review

This post is one in a series of posts on how to set type on an image.

The target audience for this series of posts includes those who want a web site or a blog to serve as an effective marketing or branding tool.

Let’s review what we’ve covered so far (in the previous four posts).

• Strong contrast between foreground (type) and background is critical to legibility.
• TV commercials (and news broadcasts) provide good examples of excellent legibility.
• Study TV commercials (and such), and you’ll find that only rarely is type set on a real image.
• A notable exception is the foreign-language film with subtitles.
• When viewing such a film, people find a lack of legibility frustrating and annoying.
• To be most legible, type on a real image has to be stylized in some way.
• If the image is variable, or if both the image and the text are variable, as in a foreign-language film with subtitles, the text can be styled so it’s legible even when there’s no contrast at all between foreground and background.

And let’s remind ourselves on something basic ? what any of this has to do with using a web site or a blog as a marketing or branding tool:

1. If people can’t read your copy, they won’t.
2. If they don’t, your effort to put that copy in front of them is wasted.
3. To be set in style, your type must be extremely legible.

In future posts regarding Type & Image, we’ll look at such things as:

• Setting type as a graphic that search engines can parse.
• How to set type on an image without expensive software.
• What you can do with a just a few thousand dollars worth of software.
• How to get your hands on a few thousand dollars worth of software for around $20.

Full post as published by Set in Style on March 17, 2010 (boomark / email).