onscreen font very small compared to large font in print
Fonts on screen are much smaller than printed versions. Can't harldy see onscreen & I'm sending resumes!!
MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
I said, "Post a screen shot". That's not a screen shot. Which leads me to believe that there are a few basic computer notions you haven't mastered yet.
Your MBP has a screen diagonal of 13.3in and a native resolution of 1280×800. That translates to ~113 ppi (pixels per inch). The figure equivalent to a printed page is ~72 ppi (I'm simplifying a lot). So, all else being equal, the character you see on your MBP's display is always going to be smaller than the same character on the printed page.
Some applications (eg, MS Word, but not TextEdit) provide a Zoom function. Using the Zoom function is the equivalent of viewing your document through an adjustable magnifying glass. It does not change anything in the document, it does not apply to printing, and it does not affect the display of menus and commands. On your MBP, to view a document in MS Word at a size roughly equivalent to the printed paper, you have to set the zoom to 157% (this figure depends on the display resolution, so it varies depending on the computer and the display).
Some applications (eg, TextEdit) do not have a Zoom function. With such applications, you can use the system's Zoom function. As above, it does not change anything in the document and it does not apply to printing, but it does affect the display of menus and commands. Hold down Control and roll the scroll button on the mouse (or two-finger equivalent on the trackpad) to use it.
When producing a document (such as a résumé) from start to finish, you should go through three stages.
- First, you produce and edit the content. At this stage, you don't worry about formatting (typefaces, sizes, etc)—use the Draft mode in MS Word. You set everything for convenient on-screen viewing. You write what you need to write, edit it, spell-check it, check grammar and literary style, and so on.
- Second, you format it. This is where you set document margins, apply typefaces and typographic styles as required (preferably using stylesheets), construct layout elements such as page numbers, headers, footers, etc.
- Third, you print it and then revise it as needed.
When producing a document to be used both in print and on-screen, ideally you should create two versions, one for printing, one for on-screen viewing. If that is not feasible, you should try to compromise divergent requirements as well as you can. At this point, you need to understand another difference between paper and screen. Printers nowadays have much higher resolutions than computer displays, which means that, on paper, you can see finer details, which are lost on-screen (unless you greatly increase the zoom). Consequently, fonts which look well on paper don't necessarily look well on-screen. Times, whose design relies on fine serifs, does not look at all well on a computer display; moreover, for the same reason, it looks even smaller than it actually is. Hence, if you are trying to create a résumé which some will read on screen, and others on the printed page, you should avoid Times and similar fonts. Your best bet is a sans-serif font, like Myriad (I always like Optima, aka Zapf Humanist, because, although sans serif, it has in its flares a suggestion of serif); if you have to use a serif font, use one with heavier serifs, like Palatino or Bookman. Of course, the choice of font should depend on the image you're trying to project.
And invest a little money in a copy of Robin Williams' "The Mac Is Not a Typewriter".
