Sometimes creating online documents can be tricky. There are many things to consider, especially if you’re used to creating printed texts. If you're looking for great advice, Parker (2003) discusses three things to be wary of when creating an online document:
- Reading online is harder than reading on paper.
Screens use projected light, as the monitor projects the white and black colours onto the screen, causing a higher contrast in colours as compared to printed texts. The higher contrast can cause more eye strain for readers.
- Magnification and partial page viewing.Viewers can usually only see part of a webpage, making it harder to read column-style documents. All information on a page is not seen at one time, which means an ordering of information is necessary. Also, magnification can be done, but it reduces the readability of the text onscreen i.e. by zooming in and the reader has to scroll more, exerting more effort, but by zooming out the text is smaller and harder to read.
- Printed or onscreen?
Developers do not know if readers will be viewing documents onscreen or if the document has been printed before being read. Therefore, be prepared to create print-friendly pages.
What do you guys think? If you have any more bits of advice, comment below!
Source: Parker RC 2003, Looking good in print, 5th edn, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale, Arizona.
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