Technical Writers’ Companion

A large type area enables you to present a lot of information simultaneously. Use a large type area if you need to provide:

▪overviews

▪long procedures

▪lots of reference information

▪large detailed pictures

▪long or wide tables

A small type area enables you to focus on specific information. Use a small type area if:

▪your audience isn’t able to process much information at a time

▪you want to create the impression that the use of your product is very simple

▪you must adapt to a small paper size or small screen size for other reasons

Setting the type area involves a number of decisions that influence each other. It’s good practice to proceed in the following order:

1.Determine the page size
(see What page size?).

2.Decide whether to provide left pages and right pages or only one template for all pages
(see Right and left pages?).

3.Decide whether to use multiple text columns on one page, and whether to provide a margin column
(see One or multiple text columns?).

4.Decide how to align your text, and whether to hyphenate
(see Left-aligned text or justified text? and Hyphenation—yes or no?).

5.Roughly determine the size of the page margins
(see What page margins?).

The size of the required margins also depends on the chosen font, so you might have to fine-tune it in a second pass after choosing the font (see Which font size and font spacing? and What line length?).

6.Design headers and footers
(see Where to position headers, footers, and page numbers?).

Tip:
When in doubt, make a blur test: Look at a design and squint, or blur a screenshot or picture with an image editor on your computer. Don’t look at the details of your design but at the appearance as a whole. Often, a simple paper prototype also helps. Observe how the different areas on your design attract your attention. Choose the one that comes closest to what you’ve intended.