Is your terrific writing impossible to read?

I recently was invoicing a client and realized I didn’t have his address. I’d worked for him only briefly, by email—we’d never spoken on the phone—but I knew his group had a website.

Quickly, I Googled him to find the “contact us” page and, fortunately, it contained his street address. Better yet, the site was beautiful—it featured gorgeous photography and was easy to navigate.

There was one big problem. The website’s typeface was unreadable. It was way too small—I’m guessing eight or nine point—and, worse yet, it was in “reverse.”

For those of you unfamiliar with typography, type is “reversed” when the letters are lighter than the background on which they sit. This typically means the letters are white (often on a black or navy background. but they might also be a very faint color (say pale green or blue) on a darker background.