Question about text in PSE 7

[stamperwithdayjob]

Whenever I click on the text tool and go to my document, I create my space and then start to type and the letters are so tiny I can't even see them. So I scroll in and enlarge the area, but when I go back out I can't read anything.

Can someone tell me why there are 2 sizes on top? One says "leading" do both of the font sizes have to match?

I'm new at this and haven't really downloaded any fonts except for the one I used to do my first layout - Joyful Julianne or something like that - so maybe it's just the font I'm choosing.

Any help would be great. This is very addicting.
Trish

[earlofoxford]

The leading refers to the distance between the lines of type. When I use a font size of 12, I use a leading of 18. Increasing the leading puts more space between your lines of text for ease of reading.

[kminton]

I'm not a pro or anything (new at digi . . . but lover of fonts for years! LOL)

It could also be as simple as making the size of the font bigger. While we are used to 12,14 or 16 being pretty standard readable sizes, with some of these fancy fonts -- you have to make them really large to read them or for them to appear "normal" sized. At least that has been my experience. Some are designed to be more condensed or fine than others.

I'm sure the other girls may have more suggestions based on PSE . . . that I can't help with.

[stamperwithdayjob]

Thank you both for your help - especially with the leading question. That makes sense since it seems like my sentences are on top of one another. And I agree that some of these fonts seeming normal if your doing a Word document, but some of them are really too small. This forum is great.

[dugarner]

Originally Posted by stamperwithdayjob

Thank you both for your help - especially with the leading question. That makes sense since it seems like my sentences are on top of one another. And I agree that some of these fonts seeming normal if your doing a Word document, but some of them are really too small. This forum is great.

Yup, that is great advice! I go with Linda's recommendation, I usually go up at least 4 pts in my leading, so a 12 pt font would get 16 pt leading, but it is completely up to your eye, how you like it. There are many, many decorative fonts that are really, really small---Chopin Script is a popular script font, and I think I have to have it at 18 pt or 20 pt before I can even see it.

One thing I learned the hard way (after I paid to have a book printed) was that things will look a LOT smaller on your screen than they will on the page, unless you have a 12X12 screen. When I first started digiscrapping, I would type some journaling and think, 12pt is fine in Word, why is it so small here? And then I'd make it 18pt. When I got my book printed, the journaling was like a large-print book from the library!

The important thing is if you're viewing it in Word at 100% and it looks fine, it will be absolutely readable on your scrapbook page when you print it out. You have a much smaller working space on your computer screen and it scales the type accordingly. I hope that makes sense!

Also, if you work in 12X12 and then decide to print 8X8, keep in mind that your page will be scaled. So 10pt font in 12X12 will be scaled to almost too tiny in 8X8. I made that mistake once, too. If I'm going to scale down to 8X8 I make sure my font is at least 12pt, which is nice and readable in either size.

Hope this helps!