Fonts: What they are and how to use them?
Proper use of fonts and text is good way to elevate your materials. With text, all you have to remember is this—less is more. That is it. Fewer words on the screen makes it easier for the learner to learn. If content requires a lot of text, give it to your learners in a printout and let them read it, either on screen or off, but do not load up presentation screens with text. Resist the urge to cram information onto the screen. It is a counterintuitive fact; your audience will not read it, and so the more you put on the screen with the hopes that they will learn the information, the less likely they are to remember it. Seth Godin states “Why would you use words on the screen when they do just fine in your mouth???”.
You want to position your learning materials to give the learner the greatest chance of taking in the information. While one way to do this is to minimize text on the screen, another is to make the text easy to read. Use language at the appropriate reading level, and do not use jargon the learner is not intimately familiar with. Use only colors that support contrast and readability.
The best contrast for text and reading is black on white. It is also what you have been used to reading most of your life. Finally, use a font style and size that can be easily taken in. These are simple and effective ways to minimize the cognitive load—use text that is easy to read and do not put too much of it on any screen.
