DVD Studio Pro 3: In the Studio

Menus

The first thing a viewer sees on a DVD is your menu. (Well, maybe the FBI warning, but still….) Making sure your menus function well is just as important as making them look good. Here are a few points to keep in mind when designing your menus:

• Use legible fonts. Different fonts have different thresholds for legibility. Sans-serif fonts such as Arial or Gill Sans can go much smaller than something fancy such as handwriting or script fonts.

  Three pixels are a good threshold for the thickness of any part of your text. Less than three might be fine, but three or more always should be safe.

• Select a reasonable contrast between the foreground and background colors. Some colors don't mix and match very well. It's important to remember that many of your DVDs actually will be played in consumer players and on consumer television sets. That equipment won't always look as nice as your 23-inch Cinema Display!

• If you use motion menus (audio, video, or both), make sure the menu is at least 20 seconds long. When players reach the end of a motion menu, it usually takes a second or two to jump back to the beginning of the menu. During that pause, the user cannot interact with the menu. A one-second loop followed by a one-second pause can make for a very frustrating menu!

• Every submenu should have a direct link back to its parent menu. Most DVD players don't have a "back" button, so you need to provide it. Although most remote controls will have a button to the top-level menu, it's a good idea ...