When designing a form, the font style of text plays an important role in how easy the form is to read and understand by the user. The implementation of various font styles, sizes, colors and other font attributes all contribute to the effectiveness of the document.
Font Size
QUIK! TIP: Use no more than 4 different font sizes and use them consistently throughout the document: largest font for the form name or headlines, second largest for section headings, third for body text and a fourth size for large text sections (e.g. legal).
Font size refers to the pixel height of the actual text. Font size is typically measured in points. For example, the font size of the text in this sentence is 12 pts (points). The actual viewing size of a font will vary by the font style (i.e. an Arial font size 12 appears slightly larger than a Times New Roman font size 12). Strong form design will make use of font sizes to convey different types of information and to draw the user’s attention to the most important and relevant information in the desired viewing order.
Headlines or titles of pages or sections should be larger than other sections, while the body text works best when it is smaller than the headline, yet readable (not so small as to make it difficult to read). The most important aspect of font size is to keep it consistent – using too many font sizes makes a document confusing and harder to read. The following is an example of proper sizing: