A sight to see
I have been reading the Pacific Islands Monthly since June of last year when I went to Suva for a contract position. I look forward to getting each copy as I enjoy the variety of news that is written about.
However, I do have one concern that I would like you to respond to me about if you can find the time please. Although my eyes are not as young as they used to be, I can read quite clearly the text you use in the stories. But I have extreme difficulty in reading the captions under each photo.
At first I just ignored it until other people mentioned it to me too.
The problem is that the caption font appears to be not only smaller than the text
but it is in bold style as well. That means that the letters look as if they are merging into one another (or bleed into each other as, colours run into each other sometimes).
Thus I have to really struggle to see what is typed, for example pages 31,43 and so on of the March 2000 issue.
I can appreciate you want the caption to look differently to the text, but at the moment, the effect is to detract from the story. Do you not think it is difficult to read as well?
One possible solution could be to have a different colour. I notice the white print on a black or dark background is much better e.g.
“The Olympic Torch” on page 52 of the March issue, and the white captions on pages 31,50 and 52 of the November 1999 issue.
Incidentally the black bold print is even worse if it is printed on a blue background e.g page 45 of the November issue.
Could you re-consider the use of the small, black,bold font please and see what type might be more suitable.
Hans Zindels
Suva