Best Practices for Type and Images

Best Practices for Type

Use web fonts
If you are a web designer and create CSS then using the @font-face feature might be the way to go. It enables the designer to use pixel perfect level of control and detail and saves bandwidth for mobile devices.!
You can access fonts from resources like Google Web Fonts for FREE, or you can also utilize a ginormous collection of web fonts from resources like TypeKit.

It’s natural that, because of the limited space, one may tend to make font sizes smaller
to save space for more objects. However, bear in mind that it will be hard for end users to
see anything if everything is small in a cramped space. Best practices define that everything
should be visible and easy to navigate. Users will navigate the user interface with their
fingers. That means each touch point in the UI needs to be large enough to point with
a finger, not a mouse.

• Use Arial or other font faces that are supported in iPad browser

For example, “Tahoma” is not supported in iPad Safari browser, and appears as
“Times New Roman”. Check whether the font face appears on an iPad the same
as when it is on a desktop browser.

• Font sizes - minimum 11pt

List boxes - Making selections within an application will be operated by touch
gestures. That means if a list box contains very small font, then it will be difficult
to make selections for end-users. Minimum of 11pt is strongly suggested.

Graphs - For a legend in a graph, it’s possible to use smaller font sizes (minimum
9pt suggested) because it is used as reference and not directly to interact with.

Tables - For tables, it’s recommended to use a minimum 10pt for visibility, but if the
table is to be interacted very frequently, consider the same font size as list boxes.

Image Best Practices

• iPad 1 and 2 display 1024 x 768
• iPad 3 display is 2048 x 1536

• Always create the image the exact size needed for your design.
• DO NOT resize it in Indesign.

• Always resize video to fit:
- full screen - either 1024x768px or 2048x1576
OR
- inline - usually 640x320px

• 72ppi is the resolution size

Audio Controller Images File Format
• audioasset_001pause.png
• audioasset_001play.png

"For InDesign Magazine the PDFs are always created at 150 ppi. I think this is a good resolution for interactive PDF files, because it allows for zooming in. Because DPS doesn’t currently allow zooming, 72 is fine.
David Blatner