Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 18:29:26 -0500 From: "Deborah G. Lidl" <deborah.lidl@windriver.com> To: Valentino Vaschetto <logo@fadeto.blackened.com> Cc: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: key images in handbook Message-ID: <20010727182926.A3115@bsdi.com> In-Reply-To: <20010727141810.N11525-100000@fadeto.blackened.com>; from logo@fadeto.blackened.com on Fri, Jul 27, 2001 at 02:31:28PM -0700 References: <20010727141810.N11525-100000@fadeto.blackened.com>
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On Fri, Jul 27, 2001 at 02:31:28PM -0700, Valentino Vaschetto said: > What do you guys think that if instead of in the handbook where there is > "Ctrl + Shift + 3" or something, so have it come up as little graphical > representations of those keys. I did a little test of this at: > > http://fadeto.blackened.com/~logo/handbook/dialout.html > ^^ check out 16.5.9 > > So, tell me what you think.. maybe instead of having these images in the > html version, we could have them only enabled in the ps format? Allow me to unlurk for a few minutes and recommend against this. Whether on a printed page or viewed on-line through a browser or PDF viewer, one or two items in a KeyCap font are OK. As soon as you have multiple keys represented in a KeyCap font, it looks like someone dropped little boxes on the page. Your eye is drawn to the graphics, not the text and the meaning conveyed by the text. The same thing is true of using trademark symbols or icons for tips or other other items. Consider what section 1.2 (Welcome to FreeBSD) of the Handbook would look like if it had FreeBSD(R) everywhere. Also, you generally need fairly a fairly large KeyCap font size, say around 14pt, or a reasonably large graphics to make it readable. This doesn't look so great when your other text is 12pt or smaller. At this point, most people using FreeBSD should be familiar with what the various keys on the keyboard look like. So the visual cues aren't necessary for learning those elements. I wish I had usability study that I could point to to back up these comments. I don't. And I didn't search very hard for any either :-) That said, there is a fair amount of anecdotal evidence about how KeyCap fonts in regular text detract from the readability. All this said, if you do add this support, definitely use a knob, and have it disabled by default. Cheers, Debbie -- Deborah G. Lidl Toll free: 1.888.849.2734 deborah.lidl@windriver.com Wind River Phone: 1.301.765.7945 http://www.windriver.com Fax: 1.301.765.7946 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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