Creating Publications for the Elderly

Print settings

Older people with diminished vision often find reading difficult. Some sizes and styles of print are more difficult to read than others. The following suggestions will help make written materials more readable for people, especially those with vision problems:

• Use 14- or 16-point fonts. Print smaller than 14-point makes it difficult for the visually-impaired to distinguish between characters.

• Use fonts that produce thick lines in the characters. Bolding the characters may also make the print easier to read.

• Use simple letter styles. Non-serif, or sans-serif, fonts are simpler to read than serif fonts, which have small strokes that extend from the main stroke of a character or letter. These small extra strokes can make it difficult for some people to recognize the characters they are reading.

• Use upright letters or characters. Avoid italics, as well as fonts that produce slanted characters.

• If different print styles are used in the same document, keep the number of styles to a minimum. No more than 2 or 3 styles should be used on any page.

• Use upper and lower case letters. In addition to creating natural breaks for the reader, it is easier for people to read a mixture of both upper and lower case than to read letters that are all in the same case.

• Do not use large, stylized letters to begin paragraphs. It makes text more difficult to follow.

Examples

Readable text:

Providence Services for Older Adults recommends a large, simple type such as this for publications.

Difficult text:

Small, thin types such as this are difficult to read.

Difficult text:

ATTEMPTS TO MAKE A DOCUMENT STYLISH CAN MAKE IT DIFFICULT TO READ.

For more information related to print settings, see the sections on contrast, format, spacing, and highlighting information.

Further reading on print settings can be found in:

Writing Easy-to-Read Materials. Center for Medicare Education: Issue Brief vol. 1, no. 2.

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