The principles of wrting and design are generally the same, however the adaption taken to different document formats are vastly different. Everything from font style ans size to visual aids and colour schemes depends on the intended audience. Whether you are designing a template for printing purposes or a web page the intention is to 'direct the attention (of the reader) to the individual topics and increase reader interest in the document' (Reep 2006). In order to acheive this for printing purposes basic document formatting applies; all information should be structures from top left hand corner down to the bottom right hand corner. Depending on the type of document creativity with the font can be used, although generally either Arial or Times New Roman are used most frequently in a size 12. There is usually minimal colour and visual aids, and the information is generally devided with headings, sub headings and/or dot points. However when designing a web page more focus is put on the aesthetically pleasing aspect of the site. Most people skim over web pages so the imformation must be easy to access, read and not too long. Headings and dot points can be used to achieve this. Also the font should be simple as it is harder to read on a computer screen then on a printed sheet of paper, and has to be compadable with different computer monitors. There is also generally more colour and visual aids to empasis the sites purpose. Other importnat considerations for the web include accessable links and contact information.
References
Reep, DC 2006, ‘Document design’, Technical writing: principles, strategies and readings, 6th edn, Pearson/Longman, New York.
Parker, RC 1990, ‘Beginning observations’, Looking good in print: a guide to basic design for desktop publishing, 2nd edn, Ventara Press, Chapel Hill NC.
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