BM109 Computer Applications For Media

Text

Overview• Importance of text in a multimedia

presentation.• Understanding fonts and typefaces.• Using text elements in a multimedia

presentation.• Computers and text.• Font editing and design tools.• Multimedia and hypertext.

• Text came into use about 6,000 years ago

Text in History

Revolution in Communication

• Using symbols for communication

relatively recent - 6,0000 years old• 15th Century- Johann Gutenburg

printing press revolutionized information

• Recently - another revolution - the World Wide Web and its native language - HTML

The Power of Meaning and the Importance of Text

Titles

Menus

Navigational aids

•Words must be chosen carefully

•Words appear in:

•Test the words you plan to use

•Keep a thesaurus handy

Using Text in MultimediaType terminology

•TypefaceArial

CourierTimes

•Fonts•Points•Styles•Leading•Kerning

Fonts and Faces• A typeface is a family of graphic characters

that includes many type sizes and styles (such as Times, Arial, Helvetica)

• A font is a collection of characters of a single size and style belonging to a typeface family (such as bold, italic)

• Font sizes are in points 1 point = 1/72 inch(measured from top to bottom of descenders in capital letter)

• X-height is the height of the lower case letter x

Types of fonts

There are three types of fonts you need to be awareof: TrueType, PostScript and OpenType.

True TypeTrueType Fonts

Truetype fonts only require one file to be submitted but a separate

file needs to be submitted for each instance of the font. For example,

a different file is needed for normal, bold, italic, bold italic, etc.

TrueType typefaces are generally intended for business office use

and can be less reliable for publishing applications.

TrueType fonts (.ttf/.ttc) can be scaled to any size and are clear and

readable in all sizes. They can be sent to any printer or other output

device supported by Windows.

PostScript PostScript Fonts

Has main components.

The first file contains the actual PostScript typeface itself and is

often called the “binary” or “printer” file.

The second file contains the typeface’s complete name, the spacing

characteristics (font metrics) and information to help the computer

display the typeface on the screen and for printing the font.

PostScript fonts are fonts created by Adobe Systems that are

smooth, detailed, and of high quality. They are often used for

printing, especially professional-quality printing, such as books or

magazines.

OpenType Fonts

OpenType Fonts

OpenType fonts are cross-platform compatible making it easier to

share files across operating systems. Font management is simpler

since there is just one file involved. An OpenType font file contains

all the outline, metric and bitmap data in one file. It can contain

TrueType (.ttf extension) or PostScript (.otf extension) font data and

uses ATM to render the font on-screen. Adobe® InDesign® and

Adobe® Photoshop® support OpenType which allows them to use

the expanded character sets and layout features.

Character Metrics

Factors affecting legibility of text

– Size.– Background and foreground color.– Style.– Leading (pronounced “ledding”).

Styles

• Examples of styles are boldface and italic

Italic

Bold

Underlined

Leading and KerningComputers can

• adjust the line spacing (called leading)

leading

and

• the space between pairs of letters,

called kerning

Cases

• When type was set by hand, the type for a font was kept in a drawer or case,

• The upper drawer held the capital letters, and the lower drawer held the smaller letters

• From this we get the terms uppercase and lowercase

Case Sensitive

• Password, and paths in a URL are case sensitive ( that is “home” is different from “HOME”)

• It is easier to read words that have a mixture of upper and lower case letters rather than all upper case

• Computer terms use an intercap for readability as in PageMaker, or LastName

Serif and Sans Serif

• Type either has a little decoration at the end of the letter - called a serif

• or it doesn’t - sans serif ( “sans” from the French meaning without)

• Examples ( Times - serif “T” )

( Arial - sans serif “T”)

• Use what is appropriate to convey your message

Using Text In Multimedia

• WYSIWYG - What you see is what you get!

• Aim for a balance between too much text and too little

• Make web pages no more than 1 to 2 screenfuls of text

• Bring the user to the destination with as few actions as possible

Text Font Design Tips• Use the most legible font available• Use as few different faces as possible ( too

many called “ransom-note” typography• Use bold and italics to convey meaning• Adjust line spacing ( leading)• Adjust the spacing between letters in

headings to remove gaps• Use colors and background to make type

stand out• Use meaningful word for links and menus

Menus For Navigation

• A Multimedia project or web site should include:– content or information– navigation tools such as menus, mouse

clicks, key presses or touch screen – some indication or map of where the

user is in the presentation

Buttons for Interaction

• Buttons are objects that make things happen when they are clicked

• Use common button shapes and sizes

• Label them clearly

• BE SURE THEY WORK!

Fields for Reading• Reading from a computer screen is

slower than from a book

• People blink 3-5 times/minute, using a computer and 20-25 times/minute reading a book

• This reduced eye movement causes fatigue, dryness

• Try to present only a few paragraphs

per page

Portrait vs. Landscape• Monitor use wider-than-tall aspect

ratios called landscape

• Most books use taller-than- wide orientation, called portrait

• Don’t try to shrink a full page onto a monitor

portraitlandscape

HTML Documents• Standard document format on the web is

called Hypertext Markup Language ( HTML)• Originally designed for text not multimedia

- now being redesigned as Dynamic HTML ( DHTML), which uses CSS (Cascading Style sheets) and permits defining text choices.

• Specify typefaces, sizes colors and properties by “marking up” the text with tags (such as <B>, </B>)

HTML Documents

• The Font tag is used to specify the font to be displayed (if present)

• <font face = “Verdana, Arial, Times” size=“” color=“”>

Symbols and Icons

• Symbols act like “visual words” to convey meaning, (called icons)– MAC - trash can– Windows - hourglass

• Icons and sound are more easily remembered than words

• It is useful to label icons for clarity

Animating Text

• To grab a viewer’s attention:– let text “fly” onto screen– rotate or spin text, etc.

• Use special effects sparingly or they become boring

Computers and Text

• Mac standard - 72 pixels/ inch

• PC - VGA - 96 pixels/inch

• Screen ( 640 pixels across x 480 down, called 640 x480 resolution)

• Today much higher resolution possible

Fonts “Wars”

• Apple - Adobe PostScript page description font language– describes an image in terms of

mathematical constructs (Bezier curves)– Can be scaled larger or smaller– Currently > 6,000 typefaces available

• Apple & Microsoft created TrueType

Computers and Text

Allow text to be drawn at any size without “jaggies”, by anti-aliasing the edges of the characters

Fonts and Characters• Fonts smaller than 12 point are not

very legible on a monitor• Never assume the fonts installed on your

computer are on all computers• Stay with TrueType fonts ordinarily• ASCII character set - most common• Extended Character set - used for HTML• UNICODE –supports characters for all

known languages

Unicode• Developed in 1989 for multilingual text• Contains 65,000 characters form all known

languages and alphabets• Where several languages share a set of

symbols, they are grouped into a collection called scripts ( eg. Latin,

Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, Tibetan, etc.)• Shared symbols are unified into

collections called scripts

Unicode

• Numbers

• Mathematical symbols

• Punctuation

• Arrows, blocks and drawing shapes

• Technical symbols

Mapping Text Across Platforms

• Viewing a presentation on either MAC and PC reveals differences

• Fonts must be mapped from one machine to another

• If same font doesn’t exist on the other machine, one is substituted

( called font substitution)• To avoid this, convert to bitmaps

Font Editing and Design Tools

• Allow you to create your own fonts– ResEdit for MAC– Fontographer (from Macromedia) caan

be used to create Postscript, TrueType and bitmapped fonts for MAC, PB, SUN includes a freehand drawing tool

– 3D programs, such as COOL 3D and HotTEXT, create special effects

– See text for descriptions