At the Regional NSF Conference I attended recently, one of the staffers (head of the Policy Office, I forget her name offhand), said that a lot of it has to do with cross platform issues, technical issues with the Commons/Grants.gov conversion, and availability of use issues (i.e. they don't want to specify fonts that users would have to pay to use).

That said, with my graphic design and marcom background, I agree about sans serif fonts.  We were always taught that serif fonts are easier to read in large blocks of text, as the serif leads the eye from one letter to another and from one word to another.  Sans Serif fonts are better for headlines, section headers, etc, as the author wants the readers eyes to stop at those junctures.

But, they didn't ask me.  ;)

Hollie

________________________________

From: Research Administration List on behalf of Ralph Norton
Sent: Tue 5/22/2007 5:51 PM
To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] NSF Required Fonts - Font police?

It's good to read about the other side of the coin. One of my pet peeves
are agencies that require the use one of two or three specified fonts.
The choices always seem to be only among sans serif/Headline fonts (such
as Arial). A type setter will tell you that for most people, these fonts
are harder and more tiring to read. I would not exactly want to be  the
last in a pile of 30 proposals read "the night before" by a
procrastinating reviewer with eye strain...

Does anybody know the logic behind these restricted sans serif choices?

Louis Lafrado wrote:
> I am pleased to read that Arial meets the cpi limit.  With my macular
> degeneration I find Arial the easiest font to read.  Our most recent
> submission was required to be formatted in Times Roman.  My eyes and
> head still ache from the proofreading.
>
>
>
>
> *Lou Lafrado**
>
> *Louis J. Lafrado, Ph.D.*
> *L&D Associates Consulting Group*
> *54 Prestwick Court, SE*
> *Rio Rancho, New Mexico 87124*
> *(505) 856-2539 Voice/FAX*
> *(505) 238-0122 Cell*
> **xxxxxx@landd.net* <mailto:xxxxxx@landd.net>
>
> *Visit L&D Associates on the web at **www.landd.net* <http://www.landd.net/>
>
> *Visit the** L&D Associates Grant and Evaluation Blog*
> <http://www.landd.net/Grant_Evaluation_Blog.htm>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] *On
> Behalf Of *Schreiber, Hollie
> *Sent:* Tuesday, May 22, 2007 3:40 PM
> *To:* xxxxxx@hrinet.org
> *Subject:* Re: [RESADM-L] NSF Required Fonts - Font police?
>
> I've had direct email conversation with a PO that said they highlight a
> full line of text randomly throughout the proposal, 10-15 times in a
> narrative, checking to see if there are 98 characters or less in the
> line.  Once or twice is forgiven, consistently is rejected/returned for
> correction.  We did some empirical research and found that Arial 11 met
> the 15cpi qualification 95+% of the time.
>
>
>
> *Hollie Schreiber*
>
> *Proposal Development Specialist*
>
> *College of Arts & Sciences*
>
> *206 LSE*
>
> *Stillwater, OK  74078*
>
> *(405) 744-8458*
>
> *(405) 744-3285 fax*
>
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