Legibility of Digital Type-fonts and Comprehension in Reading

Summary

ABSTRACT

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of font-styles on legibility and on reading proficiency. The font-styles studied include Letter Gothic, Courier, and DECwriter font. Both upper and lower case letters were studied. The results revealed the significant effects of different font-styles, ambiguities between letters, and method of presentation. Directions for future research were suggested.

Introduction

Advances in computer technology have brought many new methods of conducting research in typesetting and typography. One area which benefits a lot from the use of modern computers is related to type-font design and evluation. With the aid of a computerized optical scanner, characters in different font styles can be read and converted into digital images. Once these images have been binarized [Suen 1986], they can be stored in matrices and reproduced easily by computers and matrix and laser printers. Hence it is not surprising to see that digital fonts have become more and more widely used in the computer environment. While these binary matrices can be stored and used later for printing, they form a new tool to study several subjects in typography such as legibility of font styles, reading speed/comprehension and font style, spacing of words and texts on the page, line lengths and character sizes. These topics have been of great interest to many psychologists and others (see e.g. Burt 1959, Tinker 1963, Hartley et al 1983). Using modern equipment, these topics can be studied much more rigorously and efficiently than before due to the fact that many parameters such as font styles, character shapes, exposure time, presentation speed, format and spacing, etc.