Font readability

Draft

Definitions

Font readability is related to measurable performance in an good reading environment. However, since the medium can be very different, e.g. book print, printer print, computer screen, hand helds, etc. this issues becomes a list of subproblems. Legibility refers to being able to read a text in bad conditions.

“Legibility is concerned with the very fine details of typeface design, and in an operational context this usually means the ability to recognise individual letters or words. Readability however concerns the optimum arrangement and layout of whole bodies of text” (Alex Pool)

Research on readability

The only sure conclusions seems to be that there are differences between fonts. Studies that constrast serif vs. non-serif fonts seem to be controversial.

I don't have time to do a real literature review, but from the little I have seen there must be interaction effects of several conditions, e.g. line length, line spacing, size of fonts, width of font, familiarity with the font, paragraph size, etc. - 19:19, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Good fonts for print books

It is generally agreed that serif fonts are better for reading since serifs sort of form an invisible line. But as we said before, there a lots of other parameters. In addition, some fonts "cheat", e.g. Calibri (Win) has more space between lines. Also, you can manipulate fonts ...

Serif

• Garamond
• Century Schoolbook (an other Century fonts), popular with magazines
• Times and Times New Roman (if saving space is an issue)
• Palatino (the opposite, if using up a lot of space is no issue)

Sans serif

• Universe
• Frutinger

Good fonts for online reading

Sans serif

• Verdana
• Arial (eats less space, ok for small paragraphs)
• Calibri
• Cambria

Serif

• Georgia
• Palatio Linotype

Sans-serif fonts are better for today's low-resoluation screens. Even my relatively recent 24 inch desktop and 17 inch laptop screens can only do 1900x1200 pixels which is very low compared to good print. - 19:19, 15 April 2009 (UTC).

Links

• Literature Review, Which Are More Legible: Serif or Sans Serif Typefaces? by Alex Pool (2005), retrieved 19:19, 15 April 2009 (UTC).

• The Academic Evidence Base for Typeface Readability and Tyeface Readability by Wharton Assitt, retrieved 19:19, 15 April 2009 (UTC).

• linotype.com. Sells really good fonts and does include useful information about fonts, e.g. an article about Frutiger, one of the best designers ever.

Bibliography

• Bell R.C., Sullivan J.L.F. (1981). Student preferences in typography. Programmed Learning and Educational Technology18(2), 57-61.

• Bix, L. (2002). The Elements of Text and Message Design and Their Impact on Message Legibility: A Literature Review. Journal of Design Communication, No. 4. HTML

• Boyarski, D., Neuwirth, C., Forlizzi, J., Regli, S.H. (1998). A Study of Fonts Designed for Screen Display. Proceedings of ACM CHI 98 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.1, 87-94.

• Dillon, A. (1992). Reading from paper versus screens: a critical review of the empirical literature. Ergonomics, 35(10), 1297-1326.

• De Lange, R. W., Esterhuizen, H. L., Beatty, D. (1993). Performance differences between Times and Helvetica in a reading task.Electronic Publishing, 6(3), 241-248.