Flash CS5: The Missing Manual

Adding Text to Your Document

Enough theory—it's time to put some words on the stage. Just as Flash has tools for adding shapes and lines to your drawings, it also has a tool specifically designed to let you add text to your drawings—the Text tool (T). The following steps describe the basic method for putting read-only text on the stage.

Frequently Asked Question: Small Is Beautiful

How can I use small type and make sure it stays readable?

For most people, reading text on a computer screen is more difficult than reading it off a piece of paper. In fact, most people simply won't read text if it's too hard to see. If your Flash project includes text with small font sizes (12 points or less), there are a few things that you can do to keep your audience from straining their eyes:

• If possible, bump the type up to a larger size (Properties→Character→Size). At small sizes, a point or even half a point makes a big difference.

• It's easiest to read black text on a white background. If you don't want to use that combination, opt for very dark text on a very light background. If you have to use light text on a dark background, then make sure there's a great deal of contrast between the colors.

• Use sans-serif type, like Helvetica or Arial for small sizes. Sans-serif type looks like the text in this box; it doesn't have the tiny end bars (serifs) you find in type like the body text in this book. Computer screens have a hard time creating sharp serif type at very small sizes.

• Use both upper- and lowercase ...