Chapter 2: Text

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 Overview

• Importance of text in a multimedia

presentation
• Understanding fonts and typefaces
• Using text elements in a multimedia
presentation
• Computers and text
• Font editing and design tools
• Multimedia and hypertext

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 Importance of Text
in a Multimedia Presentation

• Words and symbols in any form, spoken or

written, are the most common means of
communication.
• Text is a vital element of multimedia menus,
navigation systems, and content.

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 Importance of Text
in a Multimedia Presentation (continued)

• The power of meaning

– Multimedia developers
must use words carefully
and accurately.

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 Importance of Text
in a Multimedia Presentation (continued)

• Factors affecting legibility of text:

– Size
– Background and foreground colors
– Style
– Leading

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 Understanding Fonts and Typefaces

• A typeface is a family of graphic characters,

often with many type sizes and styles.
• E.g. Verdana, Impact, Times New Roman

• A font is a collection of characters of a single

size and style belonging to a particular
typeface family.
• E.g. Verdana 20-point Bold Italic, Courier 18-point underlined

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 Understanding Fonts and Typefaces
(continued)

• The study of fonts and typefaces includes

the following:
– Font styles
– Font sizes
– Cases
– Serif versus sans serif

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 Understanding Fonts and Typefaces
(continued)

• Font styles include:

Boldface
Italic
Underlining

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 Understanding Fonts and Typefaces
(continued)

• Font sizes
– Font size is measured in points.
– Character metrics are the general measurements
applied to individual characters.
– Kerning is the spacing between character pairs.
– Leading is the space between lines.

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 Understanding Fonts and Typefaces
(continued)

• Cases
– A CAPITALIZED letter is referred to as UPPERCASE,
while a small letter is referred to as lowercase.
– Placing an uppercase letter in the middle of a
word is referred to as an intercap (e.g.
WorldWideWeb, GlaxoSmithKline).

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 Understanding Fonts and Typefaces
(continued)

• Serif versus sans serif

– A serif is the little decoration at the end of a
letter stroke.
– Serif fonts are used for body text (e.g. Times New
Roman, Century, Bookman, Palatino).
– Sans serif fonts do not have a serif at the end
of a letter stroke (e.g. Arial, Tahoma, Verdana).
– These fonts are used for headlines and bold
statements.

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 Using Text Elements
in a Multimedia Presentation

• The text elements used in multimedia are:

– Menus for navigation
– Interactive buttons
– Fields for reading
– HTML documents
– Symbols and icons

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 Using Text Elements
in a Multimedia Presentation (continued)

• Choosing text fonts

– Consider legibility and readability.
– Avoid too many faces.
– Use color purposefully.

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 Using Text Elements
in a Multimedia Presentation (continued)

• Choosing text fonts

– Use anti-aliased text.
– Use drop caps and initial
caps for accent.
– Minimize centered text.
– Use white space.
– Use animated text to
grab attention.

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 Using Text Elements
in a Multimedia Presentation (continued)

• Symbols and icons

– Symbols are concentrated text in the form
of stand-alone graphic constructs.
– They are used to convey meaningful messages.

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 Using Text Elements
in a Multimedia Presentation (continued)

• Symbols and icons

– Symbols used to convey human emotions
are called emoticons.
– Icons are symbolic representations
of objects and processes.

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 Using Text Elements
in a Multimedia Presentation (continued)

• Menus for navigation

– A user navigates through content using
a menu.
– A simple menu consists of a text list of topics.

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 Using Text Elements
in a Multimedia Presentation (continued)

• Interactive buttons
– A button is a clickable object that executes a
command when activated.
– Users can create their own buttons from bitmaps
and graphics.
– The design and labeling of the buttons should be
treated as an industrial art project.

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 Using Text Elements
in a Multimedia Presentation (continued)

• Fields for reading

– Reading a hard copy is easier and faster than
reading from the computer screen.
– A document can be printed in one of two
orientations: portrait or landscape.

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 Using Text Elements
in a Multimedia Presentation (continued)

• Fields for reading (continued)

– The taller-than-wide orientation used for printing
documents is called portrait.
– The wider-than-tall orientation that is normal to
monitors is called landscape.

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 Using Text Elements
in a Multimedia Presentation (continued)

• HTML documents
– HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language.
– HTML documents are marked using tags.

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 Using Text Elements
in a Multimedia Presentation (continued)

• HTML documents (continued)

– An advanced form of HTML is DHTML.
– DHTML stands for Dynamic Hypertext Markup
Language.
– DHTML uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

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 Using Text Elements
in a Multimedia Presentation (continued)

• Some of the commonly used tags are:

– The <B> tag for making text boldfaced
– The <OL> tag for creating an ordered list
– The <IMG> tag for inserting images

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 Computers and Text

• The font wars

• Character sets

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 Computers and Text (continued)

• The font wars

– PostScript
– TrueType
– OpenType

PostScript, TrueType, and OpenType

outline fonts allow text to be drawn at any
size without jaggies. Anti-aliasing text and
graphics creates “smooth” boundaries
between colors.

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 Computers and Text (continued)

• PostScript
– PostScript is a method of describing an image
in terms of mathematical constructs.
– PostScript characters are scalable and can be
drawn much faster.
– The two types of PostScript fonts are Type 3
and Type 1.

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 Computers and Text (continued)

• TrueType
– Apple and Microsoft developed the TrueType
methodology.
– TrueType is a system of scalable outline fonts
and can draw characters at low resolution.

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 Computers and Text (continued)

• OpenType
– Adobe and Microsoft developed OpenType, now the
international standard.
– It incorporates the best features of PostScript and
TrueType.

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 Computers and Text (continued)

• Character sets
– The American Standard Code for Information
Interchange (ASCII) is a 7-bit coding system.
– The extended character set is commonly filled
with ANSI standard characters.
– The ISO-Latin-1 character set is used while
programming the text of HTML pages.

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 Computers and Text (continued)

• Character sets (continued)

– Unicode is a 16-bit architecture for multilingual text
and character encoding.
– The shared symbols of each character set are
unified into collections of symbols called scripts.

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 Computers and Text (continued)

• Mapping across platforms

– Fonts and characters are not cross-platform
compatible.
– They must be mapped to the other machine using
font substitution.

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 Font Editing and Design Tools

• FontLab, Ltd.
• Creating attractive texts

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 Font Editing and Design Tools
(continued)

• Fontographer
– Fontographer is a specialized graphics editor.
– It is compatible with both Macintosh and Windows
platforms.
– It can be used to develop PostScript, TrueType, and
OpenType fonts.
– It can also modify existing typefaces and
incorporate PostScript artwork.

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 Multimedia and Hypertext

• Multimedia
• Hypertext systems
• Using hypertext systems
• Searching for words
• Hypermedia structures
• Hypertext tools

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• Multimedia
– Multimedia is defined as the combination of text,
graphics, and audio elements into a single
presentation.
– When the user assumes control over the
presentation, it is called interactive multimedia.
– Interactive multimedia becomes hypermedia when
a structure of linked elements is provided to the
user for navigation and interaction.

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• Hypertext systems
– Hypertext is defined as the organized cross-linking
of words, images, and other Web elements.
– A system in which words are keyed or indexed to
other words is referred to as a hypertext system.
– A hypertext system enables the user to navigate
through text in a non-linear way.

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• Using hypertext systems

– Information management and hypertext programs
present electronic text, images, and other elements
in a database fashion.
– Software robots visit web pages and index entire
web sites.

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• Using hypertext systems (continued)

– Hypertext databases make use of proprietary
indexing systems.
– Server-based hypertext and database engines are
widely available.

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• Typical methods for word searching in

hypermedia systems are:
– Categorical search (e.g. “Songs”, “Malay songs”)
– Word relationship (e.g. “birthday”, “cakes”)
– Adjacency (e.g. “widow”, “black”)
– Alternates (e.g. “fish”, OR “prawn”)
– Association (e.g. “ship”, AND “ferry”)

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• Typical methods for word searching in

hypermedia systems are (continued):
– Negation (e.g. “programs” NOT “university”)
– Truncation (e.g. “geo#”)
– Intermediate words such as a middle name or initial
name (eg: “Mahathir”, “Mohamad”)
– Frequency based on how often they appear

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• Hypermedia structures
– Links
– Nodes
– Anchors
– Navigating hypermedia structures

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• Links
– Links are connections between conceptual
elements.
– Links are the navigation pathways and menus.
– e.g. Links will connect “Islam” with “Allah”

links

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• Nodes
– Nodes are accessible topics, documents, messages,
and content elements.
– Nodes and links form the backbone of a knowledge
access system.

node
s

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• Anchors
– An anchor is defined as the reference from one
document to another document, image, sound,
or file on the Web.
– The source node linked to the anchor is referred
to as a link anchor.
– The destination node linked to the anchor
is referred to as a link end.

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• Navigating hypermedia structures

– The simplest way to navigate hypermedia
structures is via buttons.
– Location markers must be provided to make
navigation user-friendly.

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• Two functions common to most hypermedia

text management systems are building
(authoring) and reading.

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• The functions of a builder are:

– Creating links
– Identifying nodes
– Generating an index of words

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 Multimedia and Hypertext
(continued)

• Hypertext systems are used for:

– Electronic publishing and reference works
– Technical documentation
– Educational courseware
– Interactive kiosks
– Electronic catalogs

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Summary

• Text is one of the most important

elements of multimedia.
• The standard document format used
for web pages is called HTML.
• Dynamic HTML uses Cascading Style Sheets
(CSS) for greater control over design.

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Summary (continued)

• Multimedia is the combination of text

graphics, and audio elements into
a single presentation.
• A hypertext system enables the user to
navigate through text in a non-linear way.

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved