Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-06-24

just plain black is the best For of course the larger
you make your ad the better it will draw the eye Them
too psychological tests have proved that the smaller the
comparative size OF its competing factors the greater the
aention-value of given ad. Take, for example, the
usual page of newspaper There your lfpage adver
tisement would be almost to be seen, whereas
such page made up of ads averaging ten and fifteen
inches in size your sxinch ad would have less chance
than # it were on page with ads which did not over
shadow yours in size
But beware of mere bigness in copy It presents
many, many pitfalls. For instance if You your adj
Vertisement three columns Your first temptation
would be to have each reading line straight
those three columns You might think that such three
column line would impress more, than three onecoumn
lines But no-you are wrong Theoretically you might
be right Yet you must bear in mind above all that your
average line of threecoumns width, cannot be hard to
read People nsed to reading the ordinary single
column line of the average newspaper.
Legbility of course, about the first and foremost
factor in your advertisement IL the ad cannot be read
what good it? So if thirst for leads you
reading line three columns then size hurts
legiblity and is bad,
You are up against the same danger in any attempt
at mere bgness of type. Often the desire to get good
black display of your reading matter will result in IL
legibe smear, repeen that it is apt to repuse
than attract the attention of the reader For the human
eye is sensitive and fastidious.
Thoughtless quest for size, strengthened of your
adj may likewise result in selection of all capital letters
that which spoils the legiby of reading
lines of too great width Yet, if we but think
easily the logic of this The human eye used to
reading the in newspaper. The usual news column
is little inches WIDE 1t is made up almost
trely of small letters Therefore, when you force your
eye to travel all capitals style of type entirely
different from that to which it accustomed-the
eye is apt to revolt
Your search for size may also lead to laundering
headlines But experiments in psychological laborator
les have not only proved beyond doubt that your eye
best grasp the type which is of upper and lower
case THAT is of capital and small letters) but, Also
these experiments prove that the eye cannot grasp
than four cunts" at time &c. the matter of head
lines, when each word is virtually unit you well
derstand why the caption which comprises more than
four words, violates psychological law
When, within ad you use BIGNESS to attract
attention to special point in adj this of size
will win out in proportion to the seldomness with which
your resort to such method of emphasis Italics are
often better than all capital ettersor blank
ness Yet italics hard to read because they
natural For that reason italics apt to hurt the
running of the reading eye Therefore if you wish
to emphasize certain word set of words the better
way is to underscore.
In the columns on which the human eye has been
brought up as it were, you will find little en-
phass either by way of capitals italics underscofe
So the eve not educated to word emphasis through the
news-column There the eyes education, far
phasis concerned must be through other medium
probably the personal letter And when you emphasize
in handwriting You the underscore method That is
why this regarded the natural and therefore the best
way, to accomplish internal emphasis when necessary