Legibility Implications of Embellished Display Typefaces

Sofie Beier; Katrine Sand; Randi Starrfelt

Legibility Implications of Embellished Display Typefaces

Sofie Beier, Katrine Sand, Randi Starrfelt

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Abstract

By subjecting participants to brief exposure of single letters in the peripheral visual field, we investigated 1) hemispheric differences in reading of embellished display typefaces, and 2) the legibility difference between different kinds of embellished display typefaces. The test typefaces are designed for the purpose of controlling for the variables of swashes, stroke contrast and drop shadow.
The results show that all fonts are processed more accurately in the right visual field (corresponding to initial processing in the left hemisphere), and this is mainly evident when exposure is very brief (Experiment 1). This is contrary to the expectation that embellished typefaces should have an advantage when presented to the right hemisphere /left hemifield. There was also a clear difference in overall performance between the different embellished typeface styles, suggesting that legibility is more affected by swashed features than by a reversed letter stroke, or by a drop shadow.
When choosing between different styles of embellished display typefaces, it is therefore recommended to choose typefaces where the letter skeleton is not too complicated to decode.

Original language	English
Journal	Visible Language
Volume	51
Issue number	1
Pages (from-to)	112-133
Number of pages	21
ISSN	0022-2224
Publication status	Published - 27 Apr 2017

Keywords

Faculty of Social Sciences
legibility
readability
type design
fonts
perception
typeface style

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title = "Legibility Implications of Embellished Display Typefaces",

abstract = "By subjecting participants to brief exposure of single letters in the peripheral visual field, we investigated 1) hemispheric differences in reading of embellished display typefaces, and 2) the legibility difference between different kinds of embellished display typefaces. The test typefaces are designed for the purpose of controlling for the variables of swashes, stroke contrast and drop shadow.The results show that all fonts are processed more accurately in the right visual field (corresponding to initial processing in the left hemisphere), and this is mainly evident when exposure is very brief (Experiment 1). This is contrary to the expectation that embellished typefaces should have an advantage when presented to the right hemisphere /left hemifield. There was also a clear difference in overall performance between the different embellished typeface styles, suggesting that legibility is more affected by swashed features than by a reversed letter stroke, or by a drop shadow. When choosing between different styles of embellished display typefaces, it is therefore recommended to choose typefaces where the letter skeleton is not too complicated to decode.",

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author = "Sofie Beier and Katrine Sand and Randi Starrfelt",

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T1 - Legibility Implications of Embellished Display Typefaces

AU - Beier, Sofie

AU - Sand, Katrine

AU - Starrfelt, Randi

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N2 - By subjecting participants to brief exposure of single letters in the peripheral visual field, we investigated 1) hemispheric differences in reading of embellished display typefaces, and 2) the legibility difference between different kinds of embellished display typefaces. The test typefaces are designed for the purpose of controlling for the variables of swashes, stroke contrast and drop shadow.The results show that all fonts are processed more accurately in the right visual field (corresponding to initial processing in the left hemisphere), and this is mainly evident when exposure is very brief (Experiment 1). This is contrary to the expectation that embellished typefaces should have an advantage when presented to the right hemisphere /left hemifield. There was also a clear difference in overall performance between the different embellished typeface styles, suggesting that legibility is more affected by swashed features than by a reversed letter stroke, or by a drop shadow. When choosing between different styles of embellished display typefaces, it is therefore recommended to choose typefaces where the letter skeleton is not too complicated to decode.

AB - By subjecting participants to brief exposure of single letters in the peripheral visual field, we investigated 1) hemispheric differences in reading of embellished display typefaces, and 2) the legibility difference between different kinds of embellished display typefaces. The test typefaces are designed for the purpose of controlling for the variables of swashes, stroke contrast and drop shadow.The results show that all fonts are processed more accurately in the right visual field (corresponding to initial processing in the left hemisphere), and this is mainly evident when exposure is very brief (Experiment 1). This is contrary to the expectation that embellished typefaces should have an advantage when presented to the right hemisphere /left hemifield. There was also a clear difference in overall performance between the different embellished typeface styles, suggesting that legibility is more affected by swashed features than by a reversed letter stroke, or by a drop shadow. When choosing between different styles of embellished display typefaces, it is therefore recommended to choose typefaces where the letter skeleton is not too complicated to decode.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - legibility

KW - readability

KW - type design

KW - fonts

KW - perception

KW - typeface style

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Legibility Implications of Embellished Display Typefaces

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