CSC413 Chapter 2: Importance of Text in Multimedia

Importance of Text in a Multimedia Presentation

• Text is a vital element of multimedia menus, navigation systems, and content.
• Developers must use words carefully and accurately to convey meaning.

Factors Affecting Legibility of Text

• Size
• Background and foreground colors
• Leading style

Understanding Fonts and Typefaces

• A typeface is the design of a set of characters.
• A font is a family of graphic characters, including many type sizes and styles (e.g., Verdana, Impact, Times New Roman).
• A collection of characters of a single size and style belongs to a particular typeface family (e.g., Verdana 20-point Bold Italic, Courier 18-point underlined).

Font Characteristics

• Font styles
• Font sizes
• Cases (e.g., uppercase, lowercase)
• Serif vs. sans-serif fonts

Using Text Elements in a Multimedia Presentation

• HTML documents use tags to format text.
• HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language.
• DHTML (Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language) is an advanced form of HTML that uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
• Common HTML tags include <b> for boldfaced text, </b><b> for ordered lists, and `` for inserting images.

Symbols and Icons

• Symbols are concentrated text in the form of stand-alone graphic constructs that convey meaningful messages.
• Emoticons are symbols used to convey human emotions.
• Icons are symbolic representations of objects and processes.

Choosing Text Fonts

• Consider legibility and readability when choosing a font.
• Avoid using too many font faces.
• Use color purposefully and anti-aliased text.
• Use drop caps and initial caps for accent, and minimize centered text.
• Use white space effectively and animated text to grab attention.

Computers and Text

• PostScript, TrueType, and OpenType outline fonts allow text to be drawn at any size without jaggies.
• Anti-aliasing text and graphics creates smooth boundaries between colors.

The Font Wars

• PostScript is a method of describing an image in terms of mathematical constructs.
• PostScript characters are scalable and can be drawn faster.
• PostScript fonts have two types: Type 3 and Type 1.

TrueType and OpenType

• TrueType is a system of scalable outline fonts developed by Apple and Microsoft.
• OpenType is a standard developed by Adobe and Microsoft, incorporating the best features of PostScript and TrueType.

Character Sets

• ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is a 7-bit coding system.
• The extended character set is commonly filled with ANSI standard characters.
• The ISO-Latin-1 character set is used in HTML pages.
• Unicode is a 16-bit architecture for multilingual text and character encoding.

Test your understanding of the role of text in multimedia presentations, including font editing and design tools, understanding fonts and typefaces, and computers and text. Learn about the importance of text in multimedia menus, navigation systems, and more.