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Blogging Tips-3 Things to Avoid While Writing Content

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Blogging Tips – 3 Things to Avoid While Writing Content

Avoid Font Sizes Smaller Than 14 pixels
Ideally, body copy should be set at 16 pixels (or above). Yes, the default size. There’s a good reason this is the universal default: on typical screens, 16 pixels text is displayed at a similar size to printed 12 point text—the default for word processors. These are the defaults because they’re the most legible sizes for the majority of people. If your reader is over 40, using small fonts is like putting a bullet in your foot. (Remember, too, that a screen is generally positioned further from the reader than something like a magazine or book.)

Here’s an example of what I mean:–
Do not make body copy smaller to accommodate an existing layout, or to imitate what others are doing for stylistic (as opposed to usability or accessibility) reasons.

In print, type as small as 8pt is an ideal compromise between legibility and cost. On the web, however, you pay nothing for using more space…but you will pay if your reader finds your copy too hard to read and clicks away before he converts. On high-resolution screens, text set below 16px is extremely difficult to read—even for people with 20/20 vision. This is especially so on increasingly popular HD screens. For example, full-HD laptops cram over two million pixels into screens which can measure (on the diagonal) only 13”.

Avoid Unnecessary Formatting
It’s easy to get carried away with typographical flourishes in copy—but these can end badly. Keep the following guidelines in mind:–

  • Italics
Italics should be used only where emphasis is genuinely required, or in pull-outs and other non-body content. This isn’t an issue of legibility so much as of correctness and aesthetics: italics aren’t actually harder to read than Roman text, but they are distracting. They’re meant to be. Overusing them wearies your reader, so they lose their force. It’s also stylistically wrong in most cases—and don’t think he won’t pick up on that. It’s like a rough edge on an otherwise finely polished piece of furniture.
  • Underlining
Underlining should be avoided entirely, except on hyperlinks—because these are what it exclusively indicates on the web. Underlining any other text will confuse your reader, and make you seem incompetent.
  • Layouts & Font Styles
Centered and right-justified body text should be avoided, along with any other unusual layout which makes the text hard to read. Colored type should be used very cautiously, if at all, as it may be mistaken for hyperlinks. Stick to two or three colors at most, and make sure the secondary colors appear only where they won’t appear to be clickable: headings, quotes, longer lines of text that won’t be mistaken for links, and so on. Similarly, don’t change fonts or font sizes for no reason. Decide on one font and one size to use for the body copy. You can use another font, and maybe three or four other sizes, for headlines, subheads, pull-quotes and the like—but don’t overdo it. Consistency is key.

Avoid elements which will distract users
If you distract your reader from reading your copy, your readership will obviously plummet. This is just common sense, and should go without saying—yet so many websites break this rule in major and obnoxious ways that I feel compelled to labor the point. There should be nothing on a page which will break your reader’s train of thought, or divert him from the copy.
Particularly do not break the left margin. That is our ‘anchor’ when reading. If the left margin moves—such as when an image is floated to the left, and the text must wrap around it—we cannot keep reading until our eye picks it up again.

Author Bio
Charles West is a professional content writer and blogger since last 2 years. I have writing expertise in technology and certification topics specially. I love to share that recently I passed my 640-692 exam from SAS institute and 642-889 exam from VMware. Thanks for reading.
 

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