Why Typography Matters
Text is the primary medium of education and communication. Readable typography directly affects users with low vision, cognitive disabilities, dyslexia, and situational limitations. Good typography also benefits everyone — clearer text means better comprehension for all readers.
⚡ Quick Rules
- Sans-serif fonts for digital content
- 12pt minimum in documents, 16px on web
- Left-align body text
- Use real text, not images of text
- Set the document language
- Avoid all-caps and justified text
Font Choice
| Recommendation | Why |
|---|---|
| Use clean, legible sans-serif fonts for digital content (e.g., Arial, Verdana, Calibri, Helvetica) | Sans-serif fonts are easier to read on screens, especially at small sizes |
| Serif fonts are acceptable for print but harder to read on screens | Serifs can blur at small digital sizes |
| Avoid decorative or script fonts for body text | They're difficult to read and may be unreadable by screen readers |
| Use a consistent font throughout the document | Consistency improves readability and navigation |
Text Formatting
| ✅ Do | ❌ Don't |
|---|---|
| Use real text (typeable, selectable) | Use images of text (screenshots of text) |
| Left-align body text | Justify or center text (creates uneven spacing that's hard to read) |
| Use bold or italics for emphasis on key words | Use all-caps for long stretches (screen readers may read letter-by-letter) |
| Use 1.5 line spacing in documents | Use single spacing with extra line breaks for space |
| Set minimum body text at 12pt in documents, 16px on web | Use font sizes below 12pt for body text |
Language
Setting the document language is critical for screen readers — it tells them which pronunciation rules to use.
- Word: Review → Language → Set Proofing Language
- PowerPoint: Review → Language → Set Proofing Language
- PDF (Acrobat Pro): Menu → Document Properties → Advanced → Reading Options → Language
If your document includes passages in a different language, set the language for those passages specifically.
- Word: Select the text in another language (a word, sentence, a paragraph, however much you need). Go to Review → Language → Set Proofing Language (This is so a screen reader switches pronunciation rules when it reaches the section.)
- PowerPoint: Select the text (within a text box or placeholder). Go to Review → Language → Set Proofing Language.
- PDF (Acrobat Pro): This one is more involved — you set the language on the tag that wraps the foreign-language text, not on the visible text itself:
- Select the text in the document body that's in the different language.
- Open the Tags pane (Menu → View → Show/Hide → Side Panels → Accessibility Tags).
- Find the applicable tag in the tags tree (if it's in a table, look for the <p> nested inside the table tags), right-click it, and select Properties.
- In the Tag tab, choose the correct language from the Language drop-down list and click OK.
Important caveat: Word's per-passage language setting does not carry over when you export to PDF. If PDF is your final distribution format, you'll need to set the language on the relevant tags directly in Acrobat Pro.
Resizable Text
Web content must remain usable when text is resized up to 200%. This means:
- Don't lock font sizes in fixed pixels on web pages. This often happens when copying and pasting formatted text from Word—paste as plain text instead, and re-style using the web editor.
- Don't use images of text (they don't resize)
- Ensure layouts don't break when text size increases