Mike Wickham wrote: >> When making diagrams and inserting pictures, I would suggest using some >> colors. Colors >> definitely add to the visual appeal. A colorful manual is definitely going >> to catch the user >> attention. What say? > > Color type, though, (example: color headlines) can have a severely negative > effect on reader comprehension, according to the studies in Colin Wheildon's > _Type and Layout_. His study showed 70% "good" comprehension with black > type, compared to only 10% good comprehension for high-chroma color type. > It's a nice book that covers studies of the effects on comprehension of > serif vs. sans serif type, reverse type, color type, bold vs. italic, > justification and more. The book is a good read, available at Amazon: > > http://www.amazon.com/Type-Layout-Communicating-Making-Pretty/dp/1875750223/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242936596&sr=1-1 > > Mike Wickham >
Wheildon's book is rather narrowly addressed to advertisers who typically need to get a reader's attention in the split second they flip the pages of a magazine. I don't think it's valid to extrapolate his conclusions to book length technical documents. (And to read some of the comments on the Amazon pages -- http://www.amazon.com/review/R1SUFVT71QXL6V/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm -- for example, his conclusions may not be valid to begin with anyway.) Scattering a few grains of salt... ;-) -- Stuart Rogers Technical Communicator Phoenix Geophysics Limited Toronto, ON, Canada +1 (416) 491-7340 x 325 srogers phoenix-geophysics com "Ah, but a man's screech should exceed his rasp, or what's a violin for?" --with apologies to Robert Browning and the people next door
