Body text
The body text is the standard text style and the one which is used for all 'normal' text, that is text which isn't a heading or lead paragraph.
How to use
The LFUI body text styling aims to provide a nice and smooth reading experience. It is set in Arial, 16 px and a black colour (#222222). Also refer to Typography under Visual Identity.
To improve readability we have continuously increased the font size of our body text. From 12 px in 2012 to 14 px in 2014 and then a bump to 16px in 2016. Someone must have forgotten to change again in 2018...
Links in body text
For accessibility reasons we recommend that links aren't placed in a paragraph, but rather after it. This improves accessibility in many ways such as readability of text, navigation with screen readers or tabbing and for those who are just glancing through a page in search of a link.
There is however a conflict between accessibility and SEO, as search engines prefer links in text blocks. Thus we have an exception from the general recommendation, the first time one of our offerings is mentioned after the lead paragraph, the word can be linked inside the paragraph. It is important to use this exception with moderation and only link to offerings which fit in the context of the page you're working on.
The image below shows our standard way of using links to the left and the exception to the right.
To consider
- Keep general recommendations on text length online in mind. A good rule of thumb is to keep the width of each line to 65-85 characters (including blanks).
- Don't use CAPS for anything except first letters of sentences and names.
- Do not use bold to highlight words, find ways of getting your point across which are more accessible.