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:

Font Type & Style

QUIK! TIP: Choose no more than two fonts for the entire document – one for headings and one for the body.

The type of font and its style starts with the name of the font and is enhanced by various style attributes (e.g. bold, italics, etc). There are thousands of fonts available in various font libraries (e.g. Adobe sells fonts), but most computers start with a very small number of standard fonts. The most common fonts include: Arial, Courier, Helvetica and Times New Roman. Fonts come in two forms: basic fonts (like courier) and true-type fonts (like Arial). A basic font is designed for printers, allowing the printer to scale the font as necessary, which may result in having print output that does not match what you see on your screen. True-type fonts are much easier to read and print exactly as you see them on your screen. In today’s modern age, it is rare to see a form that uses non-true-type fonts simply because those fonts are not appealing and can be difficult to read. In choosing a font, the main concern is how many different fonts will display on a single document. By having more than one font, you can easily distinguish sections and headings from body text. On the other hand, having too many fonts makes the document harder to read and confusing because the reader’s eyes never have time to recognize a visual pattern in how the document is organized.

In addition to the font type that is chosen, a font can be enhanced through applying styles such as color, bold, italics, bold-italics, underlines, strike-throughs, and a multitude of other styles (depending on your document editor). Through the selection of font, size and style, a font can present users with different information very easily (e.g. the beginning of a new section, showing that a field is required, etc.).

Embedding Fonts in PDF

QUIK! TIP: Always embed fonts when creating a PDF from your original document.

One of the key challenges in using fonts on a computer is that the person who views your document must be able to display the font that you chose to design your form with otherwise the document does not display as you intended. For example, if you choose the font style called Impact and the viewer of your document does not have that style, you risk the text not displaying properly for the user. Since this document is a guide for how to build electronic forms that are distributed in PDF format, the problem of sharing fonts with users who do not have your font can be easily resolved by Adobe PDF by "embedding" the font.

Embedding a font in a PDF file means that the PDF document will internally contain the necessary font information required to display the text in the original font you chose. This ensures that your document always displays properly even if the user does not have the font on their system. In order to embed a font in Adobe, you need to select the option to embed the font when you create the PDF document from your editor. Given the many ways in which you can generate the PDF (Adobe PDFWriter, Adobe Distiller, third-party PDF converters, plug-in converters, etc), this guide will not show you how, but will suggest that you read your documentation for converting to PDF and find the option to embed fonts. Typically, this setting is found in the advanced options of your PDF conversion software.

Other Font Attributes

QUIK! TIP: Use other text spacing and other effects sparingly.

There are many other ways to modify a font to create different effects. Two of the more common methods, character spacing and capitalization, are discussed here.

Character Spacing

A font can be augmented by how much space is allowed between each character. Character spacing is typically used in headings to make the heading s t r e t c h out further for emphasis and to offset certain characters like trademark symbols™.

Capitalization

Capitalization refers to making a letter UPPER case (vs. lower case). Words can be lower case, UPPER CASE (i.e. ALL CAPS) or Initial Capitalization (Initial Caps). It is most common to use Initial Caps, but there are times when ALL CAPS will help a word stand out better. Using ALL CAPS exclusively voids the purpose of using ALL CAPS in the first place because nothing stands out when everything is capitalized. PLUS, READING SOMETHING THAT IS IN ALL CAPS IS ANNOYING AT BEST.