What Makes a Typeface Legible? Ask Science.

The trade of graphic design is full of assumptions of what makes a font legible. Some people claim that the upper part of letters is important for recognition, others that letters need to be highly differentiated. These ideas typically originate in personal observations of what works and what does not. At the Center for Visibility Design at the Royal Danish Academy, the research team is working towards validating the many assumptions of what makes a font legible. By using psychophysical test methods, and isolating fonts parameters for investigations, the aim is to identify the different features of a typeface that can influence legibility. The experiments draw on measures of letter and word recognition, as well as eye-tracking data from passage reading. For this lecture, professor Sofie Beier will take you through the many experiments and enlighten you on the findings.