Site Ratings & Reviews - Bold Font Question

Author

Bold Font Question

jstfrths

2007-01-30, 9:55 am

I've put a site together that uses bold fonts throughout, and I think
it is easy to read, and looks nice. You may disagree. In fact, I'd like
to hear from anyone who would be willing to render an opinion on the
subject - does this site: www.intellectual-playground.com look good
with its bold typeface, or do you think I should use a regular
typeface?
Thanks,
- Jeff

Chris F.A. Johnson

2007-01-30, 9:55 am

On 2007-01-10, jstfrths wrote:
> I've put a site together that uses bold fonts throughout, and I think
> it is easy to read, and looks nice. You may disagree. In fact, I'd like
> to hear from anyone who would be willing to render an opinion on the
> subject - does this site: www.intellectual-playground.com look good
> with its bold typeface, or do you think I should use a regular
> typeface?

In small doses, a bold font is fine. Used for blocks of text it
can be hard to read, though not as bad as italic. Medium-weight
faces are designed for blocks of text; if in doubt, or unless you
have a good reason, use them.

Margins can increase readbility; use at least 1em to the left and
right of blocks of text (e.g., on
<http://www.intellectual-playground.com/efcomputer.htm> ).

I have a problem with
<http://www.intellectual-playground.com/comedy.htm>. The text is
too small to read, and I cannot increase the size.

--
Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
===================================================================
Author:
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)

Beauregard T. Shagnasty

2007-01-30, 9:55 am

Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:

> (e.g., on
> <http://www.intellectual-playground.com/efcomputer.htm> ).

This is a bit OT, but I just had a look at this page. There is some very
bad advice given there.

"You can hide a 'secret' in email, web pages or in any sort of text
document by selecting the same color for your text as the background
color - generally white. The message will be invisible unless the user
highlights the white area. This can be used on web pages where you want
the search engines to index your page for common misspellings.
[more] ..."

If the Googlebot reads the page and finds the hidden text, it will ban
you.

--
-bts
-Motorcycles defy gravity; cars just suck

wayne

2007-01-30, 9:55 am

jstfrths wrote:
> I've put a site together that uses bold fonts throughout, and I think
> it is easy to read, and looks nice. You may disagree. In fact, I'd like
> to hear from anyone who would be willing to render an opinion on the
> subject - does this site: www.intellectual-playground.com look good
> with its bold typeface, or do you think I should use a regular
> typeface?
> Thanks,
> - Jeff
>

You may want to consider doing away with and any other inline
tags and use CSS for formating. I agree with Chris about the bold font.

--
Wayne
http://www.glenmeadows.us
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things
and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil
things, that takes religion.
—Steven Weinberg

Chris F.A. Johnson

2007-01-30, 9:55 am

On 2007-01-13, Beauregard T. Shagnasty wrote:
> Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
>
>
> This is a bit OT, but I just had a look at this page. There is some very
> bad advice given there.
>
> "You can hide a 'secret' in email, web pages or in any sort of text
> document by selecting the same color for your text as the background
> color - generally white. The message will be invisible unless the user
> highlights the white area. This can be used on web pages where you want
> the search engines to index your page for common misspellings.
> [more] ..."

That's not so much bad advice, as just plain wrong.

You cannot hide text that way in a plain text document; it doesn't
have any colour information.

You cannot hide text that way in any e-mail I (and many other
people) read, as I use a text reader that doesn't render HTML.

You cannot hide text that way if it's being viewed with a text
browser such as Lynx or Links.

You cannot hide text that way if the user doesn't allow websites to
override local colour settings.

> If the Googlebot reads the page and finds the hidden text, it will ban
> you.

How will Google know that it's hidden? Does it read CSS files and
apply the rules to the text?

--
Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
===================================================================
Author:
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)

Beauregard T. Shagnasty

2007-01-30, 9:55 am

Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:

> How will Google know that it's hidden? Does it read CSS files and
> apply the rules to the text?

I don't know the technical aspect, but it has been stated in these
various groups many times that the Googlebot finds hidden (colored)
text, and penalizes the size for it.

The rest of your statements are obviously correct as well.

--
-bts
-Motorcycles defy gravity; cars just suck

Chaddy2222

2007-01-30, 9:55 am

Beauregard T. Shagnasty wrote:
> Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
>
>
> I don't know the technical aspect, but it has been stated in these
> various groups many times that the Googlebot finds hidden (colored)
> text, and penalizes the size for it.
>
> The rest of your statements are obviously correct as well.
I was just having a think about this.
Maybe Google Bot is programmed to read Inline Styles, such as the RGB
tags and then look for what's listed after those tags?
--
Regards Chad. http://freewebdesign.cjb.cc

javawizard

2007-01-30, 9:55 am

Beauregard T. Shagnasty wrote:
> Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
>
> If the Googlebot reads the page and finds the hidden text, it will ban
> you.

Hi Chris,
Do you know that for a fact, or it just something you heard
somewhere?
Thanks,
- Jeff
www.Intellectual-playground.com

Chris F.A. Johnson

2007-01-30, 9:55 am

On 2007-01-15, javawizard wrote:
>
> Beauregard T. Shagnasty wrote:
>
> Hi Chris,
> Do you know that for a fact, or it just something you heard
> somewhere?

I don't know that at all (I didn't write it); in fact, I rather
doubt it (which is what I was implying).

--
Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
===================================================================
Author:
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)

Beauregard T. Shagnasty

2007-01-30, 9:55 am

javawizard wrote:

> Beauregard T. Shagnasty wrote:

No, he didn't.
[color=darkred]
>
> Hi Chris,
> Do you know that for a fact, or it just something you heard
> somewhere?

A search engine is your friend.

<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...for+hidden+text>
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,020,000 for ban site for hidden text.

http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3218069.htm
http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-E...xt-in-Websites/
and more...

If you had a really important site that relied on search engines, would
you take the risk?

--
-bts
-Motorcycles defy gravity; cars just suck

the red dot

2007-02-13, 10:16 pm

"jstfrths" <jstfrths@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1168464341.866281.318670@o58g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> I've put a site together that uses bold fonts throughout, and I think
> it is easy to read, and looks nice. You may disagree. In fact, I'd like
> to hear from anyone who would be willing to render an opinion on the
> subject - does this site: www.intellectual-playground.com look good
> with its bold typeface, or do you think I should use a regular
> typeface?
> Thanks,
> - Jeff