Dear Before & After
I do a lot of business writing and wonder if you have articles that show ways of laying out instructions and text without the benefit of pictures — ways of inviting readers into an 8-1/2" x 11" page, with only Arial and Times New Roman. — Daryl

Dear Daryl,
Several responses come to mind. First, Article 0669 Callout ideas, addresses your inquiry with suggestions for attracting readers into text-filled pages using quotes from your pages. Second, a recurring theme throughout Before & After’s articles is the use of the white space. Any page, whether paper or Web, can be beautiful through the designer’s use of text and surrounding space. Add your software’s amazing ability to change the size, color and spacing of the text, and your pages become artwork. Third, the back-issue articles we recommend for ways to use your typefaces for organization, emphasis and guiding your reader through your pages are the following: Issue 14’s Make an easy-to-read data sheet; 0615 Design a small chart; Issue 9’s How to typeset an interview; and 0643 Design Talk 7’s second idea, Differences establish hierarchy. One final observation: John McWade called Times Roman “A navy blue blazer, always appropriate,” in Issue 21’s What typefaces are best for text? And then on page 3 of What’s the right typeface for text — Times New Roman is the example font in the article’s first recommendation: “Pick a typeface with similar character widths.”