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 Text
and Fonts (and how to use them)
Choosing the correct fonts for your touch panel layout is very
important. Like color design, typesetting is an art unto itself
so we will only scratch the surface here. People have many different
emotional reactions to different fonts so choose yours carefully.
A font that "looks" good to you may look very unprofessional
to some one else.
Serif
or San Serif
Serifs are a hold over from the newspaper and printing business.
The little feet added onto the characters are supposed to make
the text easier to read. Well that may be so for large amounts
of printed text but it is certainly questionable in the touch
panel world. A sans serif (from the French "without serif")
has a much cleaner look to it.
Which
font to use?
With the vast selection of fonts available to you, choosing
one can be very difficult. You could go the route of using the
touch panel manufacturers default font. For example, Crestrons
Vision Tools Pro-e touch panel building software comes shipped
with several Crestron sans serif fonts that look fine. They
even have special symbols for creating transport controls quickly
and easily. Personally, I prefer a sans serif font like Arial.
When choosing a font, make sure that you find one that has a
variety of styles within the one font family. I like Arial because
it has several weights and styles to choose from. If you don't
use the fonts that the touch panel manufacturer provides, avoid
choosing a third party font just because it appeals to you.
What
not to do to your fonts?
Once you have selected your font that you will repeat across
your touch panel project there are a few things to remember
as you are using the font.
 Avoid
using the "Bold" command. It might look okay but strictly
speaking, it is bad graphic design. When you bold a font you
basically tell the application to draw an extra line of pixels
around the original character. You can get unpredictable results
when you do this. Use a font that has a bolded font. For example,
Arial has a "heavy weight" font called Arial Black.
 Be
careful how you style your text. Some touch panel design software
give you a great deal of control over how your text looks. This
can be very dangerous with features like "fringe"
and drop "shadow". Try to keep your text clean and
easy to read.
What
should you do to your fonts?
Play it safe and simple. Limit your text decoration to anti-aliasing.
It will make the text clean and easy to read.
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Design
For Use
