2.6.1-2 Text Displayed as Printed

Users should be allowed to display text exactly as it will be printed.

Additional Information:
Accurate display is particularly necessary when the format of printed output is important, as when printing letters and tables. Ideally, text displays should be able to represent all the features that are provided in printed output, including upper and lower case, underlining, bolding, subscripting, superscripting, special symbols, and different styles and sizes of type. When those features are important, the necessary display capability should be provided. For special formatting features that are not frequently used, it may be sufficient to use extra symbols to note text features that cannot be directly displayed. In that case, care should be taken that such annotation does not disturb the spacing of displayed text. This may require two display modes, one to show text spacing as it will be printed, and the other to show annotations to the text. A corollary to this recommendation is that changes made to displayed text should appear as a user makes them. Some line-based editors show changes only after a document has been filed and later recalled for display, which does not represent good user interface design.