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I absolutely agree with you that there has been scientific study of readability of fonts. What I asserted is that you cannot design an experiment that asks the question of whether serifs contribute to readability. None of the studies cited seem to mention that topic (although I'm going only from your post, not from the original studies).
I repeat: the critical factors have to do with the proportions of the characters, the set (tight/loose), word spacing, line length, and leading. Those factors can be controlled rather more easily than swapping out a dissimilar face, which affects all of those variables simultaneously.
Dick
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Jan Henning <henning -at- r-l -dot- de>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 19:55:03 +0200
>>recent ones too.
>
>So it would appear that scientific research on readability of fonts
>indeed exists.
>
>>
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