Typeface selection

Subject: Typeface selection
From: David Tietyen <tietyen -at- PICARD -dot- MSOE -dot- EDU>
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1993 20:04:27 EST

Readability is the key to type selection. I saw some research that
noted when we read, we see the shapes of words rather than the letters
themselves. The shapes are actually what we "read." From this, the
author suggested that serif typefaces should be used when you had
lengthy documents, multi-pages of text versus a single page. The serifs
provide a more distinctive shape to a word, which enables us to read it
better, faster, etc. That's why, according to the author, we have
difficulty reading text in all upper case, in italic, or in bold face.
We also have problems with hyphenated words appearing at the end of
lines since we now have to recompose the shape of the two halves. And,
this concept continues to suggest that's why we detect misspelled words,
because the shape of the word does not fit our "library or data base" of
known words.
I'm going to dig through some old files and hopefully find the original
article.

David Tietyen
Milwaukee School of Engineering


Previous by Author: Minimalist Document Design
Next by Author: ISO 9000
Previous by Thread: tech comm prof job
Next by Thread: Re: Typeface discussion


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads