Silly mistakes that you can make with text

Even in today's world of Flash animation, animated GIFs, sound files, and other special effects, the basic reason why people surf the internet is to read. Yes, the pictures and the animations are wonderful, but what people really care about is what you've got to say. That being said, it's so very important that you don't destroy your message by presenting your text in ways that discourage people from reading.

One of the most classic mistakes is to make your text very small. After all, you've got a lot to say and you want it to fit on one screen, right? So why not make it as small as you can?

There are times when you want to make a small text. A link at the bottom of your page to your privacy policy is a good example. If someone wants to see this they will find it. Otherwise, it's just something that you have to put there.

On the other hand, a very common problem is to make your text a similar color to your background. If I run into a page with everything like this I hit the back button fast.

Another mistake is to type all word in upper case. People soon learn that all caps does not mean "give me your attention" on the web - it means shout in your face. It's also a good way to get people to hit the back key on their browser.

Sometimes I see a sites which use non-standard fonts. I know that the special font which you paid a hundred dollars for is awesome, but believe me I'm not going to pay a hundred dollars just to see your web site display correctly. You can use downloadable fonts, but be aware that browser support and standards are spotty at best. Even if you do include downloadable fonts, be sure and specify alternates in your tags just in case the browser did not processing it.