Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk View Site Edition Users Guide - Manual (Page 449)

17 • C REATING GRAPHIC OBJECTS
17–7
•
•
•
• •
17
•
Pla
ceho
lde
r
Creating text objects
Use the Text tool to draw a text object. You can then create the text and set up its
appearance in the Text Properties dialog box.
Choosing text fonts
You can choose a font before or after you create text, and change the font of any object,
including objects that display data or have captions.
When choosing a font, style, size, and color for text, keep the following design principles
in mind:
 Choose a font that was designed for on-screen viewing. Examples include Arial, Arial
Narrow, Trebuchet MS, and Verdana. You can download these and other fonts free of
charge, from the Microsoft Typography web site.
 TrueType and OpenType fonts are recommended because they can be resized easily,
without losing text quality.
 Choose only one or two fonts, and use them for all the graphic displays in an
application.
 Choose a font size that can be read easily. Test the font size, and adapt it to the screen
resolution the operator will see at run time.
 To save screen space, use a condensed font such as Arial Narrow, which fits more
characters per line, rather than reducing the font size.
 Sans-serif typefaces are easier to read at small sizes and lower resolutions on the
screen than serif typefaces. For example, for normal text use Arial rather than Times
New Roman.
 Use high-contrast color combinations, such as yellow on blue, rather than low-
contrast combinations like black on green.
 Use colors with recognizable meanings. For example, in some countries the colors red
and green mean stop and start.
Keep color meanings consistent by assigning red only to Stop buttons, and green only
to Start buttons.
 Ensure that the fonts used in graphic displays are installed on all computers where the
displays will run.
If a font is not installed, Windows substitutes one that is installed, possibly with
unsatisfactory results.
Text tool