Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-06-11/News and notes

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Italian SOPA-like bill edit

Rendering text in both serif and sans-serif typefaces edit

The Project page headline "Foundation finance reformers wrestle with CoI" illustrates a recurring issue of considering how text looks in both serif and sans-serif typefaces. To a Wikipedian who knows Wikipedia's common abbreviation for conflict of interest, the meaning of "CoI" in a serif typeface is obvious. It is much less so when rendered in a sans-serif typeface, where it looks like the first syllable of College. (The headline appeared on my talk page sans-serif, so I came to the article mainly to discover what "Col", ending with a lower-case l, means.) However, to one who knows the abbreviation, "COI" (all caps) is unambiguous in either a serif or sans-serif typeface.

Does Wikipedia have a guideline about avoiding potential ambiguity in both typeface styles? If not, perhaps we should considered adopting one. In the meanwhile, please consider changing the abbreviation in the headline to all caps.—Finell 20:41, 19 June 2012 (UTC)Reply