Reverse Your Serifs

A reverse use of type is a white or light-colored typeface against either a black or dark-colored background. Typically I don't use a serif typeface in reverse unless it's very bold and doesn't have a lot of thin parts to it. It may be just a personal preference of mine, but what I've noticed in my experience is typefaces like Times New Roman and Bodoni have very thin parts to their style. This makes it very difficult to use in reverse because the thin parts tend to become "swallowed" by the background, making them harder to see, therefore harder to read.

If you really have to use that serif typeface in reverse, try to use a typeface that, when used bold, still has a good thickness in the serifs and connecting points. Some of the serif typefaces I would recommend using are: Gloucester MT Extra Condensed, Bernard MT Condensed, Bodoni MT Black, Cooper Black, and Rockwell Extra Bold. You may be able to find these for a free download; if not, they can usually be found on fonts.com for a reasonable price.