1What is online journalism? - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

Design your web resource 203
Williams and Tollett (2000) advise, it is dangerous to overdo
this:
Accept the limitations of the World Wide Web and let go of
total control. Don’t create designs that are dependent on text
being a certain font, size or in a certain place. Don’t tell the
visitor how to set their defaults – maybe they like their
defaults the way they are. It’s not their problem to make their
system match your ideal – it’s your problem to work around
the variables.
Williams and Tollett believe the two main issues for type are
readability and legibility.
Readability is important when reading a lot of body text. A serif
text such as Times New Roman or Georgia is often used
because the extra lines on the edge of each character helps the
flow of our eye movement and makes it less tiring to read large
amounts of the text. However, poor screen resolution can
reduce the benefit of this by making the serifs less distinct.
Legibility is important for short sections of text such as
headlines. Sans serif fonts such as Arial or Verdana, are
preferable, not just for headlines but also the body text if the
serif font is indistinct.
Another issue to consider about type is the use of capital and
lowercase letters. Lynch and Horton (1999) point out that ‘we
read primarily by recognizing the overall shape of words, not by
parsing each letter and then assembling a recognizable word’.
Words spelt out in capitals offer few clue shapes and so are hard
work when you have to read a lot of them. Also, if you want to use
capitals to emphasize something, you lose that power of emphasis
if everything is in uppercase.
Line length is another important consideration. Lynch and
Horton (1999) remind us that:
At normal reading distance, the eye’s span of acute focus is
only about three inches wide . . . wider lines of text require