Paper size vs text height

[Mantisguy]

One needs to go back to the day of hand draughting to truly understand the issue of text height and plan section and detail size. Drawings were often reduced using microfiche as a method of archiving drawings. Other methods were used too, but with hand drawn lettering the tect height had to be a min of a 1/4" or approximately 3mm to be able to reduce a 24"x36" drawing to approximately a 1" square. and then be able to bring it back to its original size without loosing to much readability. In todays world with various digital methods providing anything you want the question is a little more difficult to handle. Add to it that certain aging members like me can no longer read some of the miniscule text that some draftspeople still can read. In my 35 years of experience I would say that the min size of text for a 22"x 34" sheet being reduced by 50% to fit on a 11x17" printer should not be less than .09" better is .10" as this becomes .045 or .05 respectively. Also gone from most drafting knowledge is that it is smart to leave a min of 2" clear space between objects, plans, sections etc for notes and dimensions. That is to mean you have to leave 2" x your scale of your drawing if anotating in model space. When I have some more time I may write a book on how to set standards for different type of drawings.....hmmm. Oh yes if you plan to print half scale or approximately half scale you need to put a scale bar on your drawing which indicates that tif plotted as full scale the scale bar represents 4" in length. ie "This bar scales 4" on original size".....Of course if metric place 100mm bar, and so on. Thats cuz some folk in civil do drawings in meters and feet, not in inches and millimetres.

[tedg]

One needs to go back to the day of hand draughting to truly understand the issue of text height and plan section and detail size. Drawings were often reduced using microfiche as a method of archiving drawings. Other methods were used too, but with hand drawn lettering the tect height had to be a min of a 1/4" or approximately 3mm to be able to reduce a 24"x36" drawing to approximately a 1" square. and then be able to bring it back to its original size without loosing to much readability. In todays world with various digital methods providing anything you want the question is a little more difficult to handle. Add to it that certain aging members like me can no longer read some of the miniscule text that some draftspeople still can read. In my 35 years of experience I would say that the min size of text for a 22"x 34" sheet being reduced by 50% to fit on a 11x17" printer should not be less than .09" better is .10" as this becomes .045 or .05 respectively. Also gone from most drafting knowledge is that it is smart to leave a min of 2" clear space between objects, plans, sections etc for notes and dimensions. That is to mean you have to leave 2" x your scale of your drawing if anotating in model space. When I have some more time I may write a book on how to set standards for different type of drawings.....hmmm. Oh yes if you plan to print half scale or approximately half scale you need to put a scale bar on your drawing which indicates that tif plotted as full scale the scale bar represents 4" in length. ie "This bar scales 4" on original size".....Of course if metric place 100mm bar, and so on. Thats cuz some folk in civil do drawings in meters and feet, not in inches and millimetres.

Nicely put, and I think you will find that most of us (who've posted in this thread) are on board with this line of thinking.

Drawings need to be set up to an expected sheet size, per a required standard, and that some clients/end-users will occasionally print them at a smaller size for convenience.
And so, in this case, the standards/text heights would be set up accommodate a smaller printed size and still be readable.

Standard text sizes that I've used in the past (and per NCS) which accommadate half size prints are .1" and .125" (3/32" and 1/8").

Now can we stop beating this dead horse?

[colinawright]

I am very pleased to note that no-one so far has suggested annotating or dimensioning in Paperspace but a little disappointed that no-one has suggested copying the text to a different scale and changing its layer so that the required layer can be activated according to the intended plot scale. I've personally never done this but it could be a solution for difficult clients.

[jaberwok]

... no-one has suggested copying the text to a different scale and changing its layer so that the required layer can be activated according to the intended plot scale. I've personally never done this but it could be a solution for difficult clients.

as was once common practice, freezing and thawing viewport layers.

[Opie]

I am very pleased to note that no-one so far has suggested annotating or dimensioning in Paperspace but a little disappointed that no-one has suggested copying the text to a different scale and changing its layer so that the required layer can be activated according to the intended plot scale. I've personally never done this but it could be a solution for difficult clients.

That's because I didn't chime in. I know that discussion and do not wish to partake in it again.