Text is used extensively in online products but less in offline and care should be taken to keep its quality in line with other media components. Use of a different typeface to highlight some text can be effective but use of a larger number of different typefaces (often called 'ransom note' typography) can be visually distracting for the user. In offline applications, use of text has become supportive of the other media components and special care needs to be taken that it blends with them.

For online projects, the Information providers' guide available at http://europa.eu.int/ipg/ipg_en.htm gives guidance for text layout, size and typefaces. The IPG also provides template models, which authors can use to present information in a consistent way.