When you create and edit text on your computer, one of the easiest things you can do to save yourself eye strain is to write in a screen font and then switch your document to a font optimized for looking good on paper as the last step in the process.
My hat is off to Microsoft for realizing that most people never change the default font in their word processor, and thus end up squinting at Times New Roman as they’re typing their TPS reports. This is why Vista and Office 2007 started using a new font called Calibri as default. It’s a nice font, looks decent in printed form and above all else is easy to read on-screen. A win for everybody.
Of course, we all have different tastes, which is why there are about one kazillion fonts out there. What works for one person doesn’t work for another. Not a problem. Just take a few minutes to go through your font menu to find something that looks good to you and is easy to read while you’re writing and editing, and then change your default font to that.
Then, when you’re ready to go to print, simply change over to a font made to look good on paper—or your company’s standard font, if you’re working for an organization like that—and your readers will be happy as well.
Some favorites for reading on the screen are the aforementioned Calibri, Verdana, Lucida Sans, or if you really want to go old-school, go with Courier. That’s right, the font used on IBM Selectric typewriters.
Say what? Why would I ever want to use a typewriter font on my quite expensive and sleek thank-you-very-much computer? Apart from being easy to read, Courier is a monospaced font, which means that all character are exactly the same width, including spaces. If you use Courier you can not only revel in being retro, you will also have ninja powers to find and destroy any inadvertent extra spaces that creep in during editing.
But do please save yourself the agony that is text editing with Times New Roman. You deserve better.