Ensuring that the designs you use for your printed material is useful for all ages of people is very important. If you cater for the senior citizens in your audience in particular, then it’s your duty to make sure that your printed content is easily digestible. We’ll show you a bunch of great tips that can help you to do just that.

• Try to use serif typeface for your printed materials – they’re easier to read because they don’t have tails on the ends of their letters which may create an illusionary, confusing line.

• Ensure that any text you print is big enough for seniors to see; text should be at least 12 points, 13 points or 14 points in size.

• There should be sufficient white space within the printed material, to help to relax the eyes and help your readers focus their attention.

• Make use of upper and lower case letters within your print to make the text easier to read. Only use things like all caps when you want to put emphasis on something.

• Don’t use too many styles (like underlining, bold and italics) to add emphasis.

• Try to double space your body text so that the lines aren’t jammed too closely together.

• Ensure that your text is justified to the left because that makes it easier for people to read.

• Avoid wrapping your text around a graphic, because that makes images more difficult to read.

• Space your letters normally – try to avoid expanding or condensing them.

• Don’t use yellow, blue and green close to each other because as age increases, the ability to tell the colors apart, decreases.

• Use dark text against a light background and try to avoid patterned backgrounds when printing for elderly folks.

• Try to make your lines at least 50 to 65 characters long, so that the senior eyes can read them more easily.

• Stay away from making awkward breaks at the end of lines, because using sentences can make words harder to read.

• Try not to use glossy paper, which will make your text more difficult to read.

If you are looking for high quality printing products in Ottawa such as business cards, flyers, yard signs, posters, brochures or envelopes then you should call us now for a free printing estimate. Our Ottawa print shop is part of our network of 3 commercial printing warehouses across Canada working 3 shifts per day to produce high quality printing products for our dynamic clients across Canada. We have a retail pickup location in Ottawa for all of your Ottawa printing needs and we can even offer same day rush printing services if needed to get you your print marketing materials fast.