Media and Information Literacy: Text

• Media and Information Literacy (MIL) covers text information and media.

Learning Competencies

• Learners will define text in the context of multimedia
• Learners will describe the different dimensions of text information and media
• Learners will comprehend how text information and media is/are formally and informally produced, organized, and disseminated
• Learners will evaluate the reliability and validity of text information and media and its/their sources using selection criteria

What is Text?

• Text is a simple and flexible format for presenting information or conveying ideas whether hand-written, printed or displayed on-screen
• Text is any human-readable sequence of characters that can form intelligible words

Types of Text

• Hypertext links different electronic documents and enable users to jump from one to another in a nonlinear way
• Plaintext or unformatted text has fixed sized characters with essentially the same type of appearance
• Formatted text appearance can be changed using font parameters like bold, underline, italic, font size, and font color

What is a Typeface?

• Typeface, also called font, font type, or type, refers to the representation or style of a text in the digital format
• Typeface is usually comprised of alphabets, numbers, punctuation marks, symbols and other special characters

Types of Typefaces

• Serif connotes formality and readability in large amount of texts
• Serif typeface is usually used for the body text of books, newspapers, magazines and research publication
• Serif typeface gives a classic or elegant look when used for title or heading
• Examples of serif typefaces include Times New Roman, Garamond, and Baskerville
• Sans Serif brings a clean or minimalist look to the text
• Sans Serif is used for clear and direct meaning of text such as road signage, building directory or nutrition facts in food packages
• Sans Serif gives a modern look and is used primarily in webpage design
• Examples of Sans Serif typefaces include Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, Verdana, and Calibri
• Slab Serif carries a solid or heavy look to text
• Slab Serif can be used for large advertising signs on billboards
• Examples of Slab Serif typefaces include Rockwell and Playbill
• Script typeface draws much attention to itself because of its brush-like strokes
• Script typeface must be used sparingly and not to be used in large body text
• Script typeface is usually used in wedding invitation cards or other formal events
• Examples of Script typefaces include Edwardian, Vladimir, and Kunstler
• Decorative typeface caters to a wide variety of emotions or themes
• Examples of Decorative typefaces include Chiller, Jokerman, and Curlz MI

Common File Formats

• TXT (text) is an unformatted text document by an editor as notepad on Windows platform
• DOC (document) is a native format for storing documents created by MS Word package, containing formatting capabilities
• RTF (Rich Text Format) is a cross platform document exchange and is the default format for Mac OS X's default editor TextEdit
• PDF (Portable Document Format) is developed by Adobe systems for cross platform exchange of documents and supports images and graphics
• PS (PostScript) is a page description language used mainly for desktop publishing

Design Principles and Elements

Emphasis

• Refers to the importance or value given to a part of the text-based content
• To make a point or highlight a message, text can be made bold, italicized, have a heavier weight, darkened or lightened (depending on background color) or enlarged

Appropriateness

• Appropriateness refers to how fitting or suitable the text is used for a specific audience, purpose or event
• For the choice of typefaces to be used, refer to the discussion of the characteristics of the fonts

Proximity

• Refers to how near or how far are the text elements from each other
• When two things are closely related, they are brought close together
• The main title and subtitle are usually placed close to each other

Alignment

• Alignment refers to how the text is positioned in the page, whether left, center, right, or justified

Organization

• Organization refers to a conscious effort to organize the different text elements in a page
• Organization ensures that while some text elements are separated from each other (based on the principle of proximity), they are still somehow connected with the rest of the elements in the page

Repetition

• Repetition concerns consistency of elements and the unity of the entire design
• Repetition encourages the use of repeating some typefaces within the page

Contrast

• Contrast creates visual interest to text elements
• Contrast is achieved when two elements are different from each other
• Contrast can be achieved in various ways, by joining the following elements: white text on a dark background, dark text on a white background, large font with a small font, serif and sans serif, thin elements with thin elements, cool color and warm color