What is The Best Word Font for Modules?

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petrosd
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What is The Best Word Font for Modules?

Post by petrosd »

I'm having problems getting a book properly formatted in Word so that I can use it to create a module. I want to use Word to write and edit because I'm very familiar with it and I can generate a variety of formats from a single source. I prefer to use Times New Roman 10 or 12 for Body Text/Normal. However, it doesn't have the full range of Greek characters so I also use Palatino Linotype and Gentium for Greek.

#1: Will mixing various fonts in Word cause problems in the display/viewing/use of the module in the Word.

#2: What if I used only one font - Gentium or Palatino Linotype for the document/module?

#3: Is there a preferred font for use in creating modules?
RubioTerra
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Re: What is The Best Word Font for Modules?

Post by RubioTerra »

Just for information, the Times New Roman font distributed with Windows 7 and Windows 8 supports the full Greek and Hebrew range.
Rúbio R. C. Terra
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petrosd
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Re: What is The Best Word Font for Modules?

Post by petrosd »

RubioTerra wrote:Just for information, the Times New Roman font distributed with Windows 7 and Windows 8 supports the full Greek and Hebrew range.
Thank you. I didn't know that. time to upgrade :-)

If i used Times New Roman in Windows 7/8 for Greek characters, would people using WIndows XP or Vista be unable tosee those characters because they don't have the same font on their systems. that is, their Times New Roman wouldn't contain the same character set as mine.
RubioTerra
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Re: What is The Best Word Font for Modules?

Post by RubioTerra »

petrosd wrote:If i used Times New Roman in Windows 7/8 for Greek characters, would people using WIndows XP or Vista be unable tosee those characters because they don't have the same font on their systems. that is, their Times New Roman wouldn't contain the same character set as mine.
Yes, that's correct. That wouldn't be a good option if you plan to share your module.
Rúbio R. C. Terra
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csterg
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Re: What is The Best Word Font for Modules?

Post by csterg »

The Gentium font that is always distributed with theWord can be used for the Greek words (and Cardo for Hebrew).
Times New Roman is a serif font, which may not be the easiest to read on-screen.
The most 'compatible' and supported font of Microsoft is Tahoma, and this is the default font throughout theWord for best compatibility
Costas
petrosd
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Re: What is The Best Word Font for Modules?

Post by petrosd »

To follow up...

I wanted to keep it as simple as possible so I decided to use Tahoma for both all languages except Hebrew because it has a rich character set that includes all the French and German special characters I've needed so far, and it seems to have* all the Greek characters I need. I used 11 for Body Text/Normal, 10 for Footnotes, 16 for Heading 1, 14 for Heading 2, and 12 for Heading 3. It looks good in Word. I'm hoping it will look as good and readable in theWord.

* By "seems to have", I mean that I need someone well-versed in Greek and the various marks used for punctuation and breathing, etc. to proof my Greek and make sure I've transcribed it faithfully.
ErikJon
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Re: What is The Best Word Font for Modules?

Post by ErikJon »

While it is none of my business, still, as a typesetter who used to work with graphic design and printed texts, I have come to prefer Segoe UI over most other fonts, for its legibility, flexibility, practicality and availability, as the best compromise for user modules and Bible text, within TheWord. The following are my reasons:

1. It is extremely legible even at small pont size. This is one of the reasons that Microsoft adopted it for use in Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10. It was designed by Monotype to be friendly and, at the same time, legible.*

2. It is readily available on most Windows operating systems. It is also automatically installed by Microsoft applications such as Office 2007 and Windows Live Messenger 2009, and is even used on outlook.com,* It also installs automatically into XP with Microsoft Office 2007 and Office 2010; or with Windows Live Messenger, or Windows Live Mail, which are available as free downloads.*

3. It is said to improve the consistency in how users see all text across all languages.*

4. It contains complete Unicode 4.1 coverage for Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Arabic (romans only), totaling 2843 glyphs in the regular weight.*

5. It seems to be very slightly more narrow than other similar typefaces. This means that more text will theoretically fit into the same bookview or Bibleview window (see the screenshot comparison)

6. The spacing between individual letters is a little greater than with Tahoma, making Segoe UI more legible, as this allows fewer possibilities for confusing one letter with another, as the text becomes smaller and words, themselves, become bunched together.

7. It seems to be the native font used on the TheWord interface anyway (at least on the computers that I have used, the menus, installation screen, etc.), meaning that all user-modules would automatically blend in with the overall look and feel of the program's original layout, and make it look as if both elements were designed to be together from the start.

8. It has a very distinctive bold and italic face included automatically, which are also very legible at small point size, compared to other Microsoft "core fonts." In fact, Segoe UI has a true cursive italic, unlike the aritifical "oblique" italic that is used in many other fonts, and possibly in Tahoma, as far as I can tell (notice the artificial look to the Tahoma italic at the end of the sample paragraph, and the bold italic at the beginning of that sample).

9. Segoe UI has a more modern look to it than Tahoma, Verdana, or Arial,and as it is less often used in print, but mainly in on-screen applications, it does not have that overworked, high-school-homework-assignment look to it that these others have. The psychological effect is that I do not feel that I am reading outdated information, even if my commentary is two hundred years old.

Incidentally, Segoe UI is by no means my favorite font, but after trying very many over the years, I have found it to be the best compromise for its modern look, legibility, and versatility. In fact, I prefer to use BellGothic BT, myself, or some variety thereof, in all of my modules, as I find it to be even more legible and modern-looking than Segoe UI, although it may have some issues with foreign-language fonts. Unfortunately that font does not come with the Windows OS, so I cannot recommend it to others, especially for use in TheWord.

Consequently, while I do not mean to disagree with Costas, who prefers that we use Tahoma in our homemade user modules, I cannot help but recommend Segoe UI as more legible, flexible, and practical, alternative for use in user modules. However, I would like to hear Costas' response to these observations, as there may be other factors that I am unaware of. I would like to recommend Segoe UI to other module creators in the article "Tips & Software for creating, formatting, converting modules", but I hesitate to do so, if Costas is opposed.

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*Wikipedia's article on Segoe UI is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segoe#Segoe_UI
Attachments
Segoe UI vs Tahoma small.jpg
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Last edited by ErikJon on Wed Feb 08, 2017 3:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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I'm an Independent Baptist running TheWord portable v 5.0.0.1481 from an external 500GB hard drive with over 1,900 modules installed and loaded in my current module set. I'm using 32-bit Vista Ultimate SP1 with a 2.7gHz processor and 4GB RAM.
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JG
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Re: What is The Best Word Font for Modules?

Post by JG »

I use Segoe UI

It is certainly an improvement over Tahoma. Even when zoomed it is clear and easy to read. Italic bold is clearer.
Also it is the default system font on Windows 10.

Note the clarity when zoomed. Segoe UI is top font in each pic.
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no zoom Jon theWord_2017-02-06_170525.png (215.39 KiB) Viewed 2599 times
zoom Jon theWord_2017-02-06_170616.png
zoom Jon theWord_2017-02-06_170616.png (288.83 KiB) Viewed 2599 times
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