topic Re: What size fonts do you use? in Documentation

What size fonts do you use?

Gus — Fri, 19 May 2023 13:54:46 GMT

I'm curious what size text people use for different types of information while creating construction documents in ArchiCAD?

What Size Text (how many points) do you use for the following:

Notes?

Dimensions?

Labels?

Room Names?

Any others?

Re: What size fonts do you use?

Gerald Hoffman — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 01:42:23 GMT

I use the following:
Notes- 7
Dimensions - 9 ( I use superscript fractions so 9 is large enough to read them
Labels - 7
Room Names - 12
Drawing Title Names - 16
Drawing Scale - 8

Cheers,

Re: What size fonts do you use?

Laszlo Nagy — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 01:49:23 GMT

In our office we usually use a 2.0 mm text size for Dimensions, Zone Stamps, Labels, etc. in Construction Documents.
It also depends on how much space we have in the rooms, sometime we can go up to 2.5 mm. But there were times when we had to go down to 1.8 or even 1.5 mm because the rooms were so small and we had to cram like 4 rows of text into a Zone Stamp.
But below 2.0 mm it gets hard to read when it is printed and photocopied.
For things that have more space like notes, schedules and stuff, it can be more: 2.5-3 mm, which is usually very readable.

Re: What size fonts do you use?

Stephen Dolbee — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 04:01:08 GMT

Notes- 7 (5 if limited space)
Dimensions - 7
Room Names - 10
Drawing Title Names - 14 bold

Re: What size fonts do you use?

Laszlo Nagy — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 11:18:48 GMT

Just so we can compare apples to bananas:

1 inch = 25.4 mm = 72 points.

1.5 mm = 4.25 pt
1.8 mm = 5.10 pt
2.0 mm = 5.67 pt
2.5 mm = 7.09 pt
3.0 mm = 8.50 pt

Re: What size fonts do you use?

David Maudlin — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 13:33:09 GMT

My default font size for all but room names is 8 pt (default font is Hevetica, all caps), but can go down to 6 pt for small amounts of text when necessary. Room names at 10 pt. I expect some drawings will get printed at 1/2 size, making the font size 4 pt, which is a minimum readable size. If paper actually disappears one day and everything is on screen, then I will reconsider.

David

Re: What size fonts do you use?

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 01:43:42 GMT

1.5mm for all notes, labels and dims
2.0mm for room names/zone stamps

We mostly use A3 and A2 layouts, and find that both of these printed at A3 with this text size is ok.

If we use A1 with these text sizes, and print at A3 it is harder to read the text, but still possible to read.

Re: What size fonts do you use?

DGSketcher — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 10:09:14 GMT

The pressure point is notes & dimensions. Ideally I use 2.5mm as a minimum which can be read (with my glasses) on a half size print, but I am drifting towards 2mm as a generally more useable size and my local builder is quite happy. I have used 1.5mm for door labels on a 1:100 scale fire plan to squeeze everything in and keep features visible.

Re: What size fonts do you use?

Erwin Edel — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 10:28:48 GMT

1,5 and 3 mm for 1:100 plans.

2 mm and 4 mm for pretty much everything else.

I've noticed that 2 mm text is problematic with dimensioning and zone stamps on 1:100.

We actually use a simple trick, where we make a 1:75 scale viewset and rescale the placed drawings to 1:100 to make the 2 mm texts 1,5 mm.

Re: What size fonts do you use?

anatopu — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 12:00:52 GMT

Hello, is there any standards about this topic?