Kobo type and choices for readability

Originally Posted by EldRick

One comparison between the NT/K3 and the KT, is that that both the K3 and NT have a large gap in sizes - I find that you usually have a choice on them of just a little too small, or way too large - they seem to jump from roughly 10-pt to maybe 16-pt, with no sizes in between.

The KT, by contrast, has much finer granularity in sizes.

The Sony readers only have six sizes: XS, S, M, L, XL, and XXL. And there is huge gap between XS and S which people have oft complained about, not that Sony has ever listened.

The Kobo Touch does seem to have the greatest range of font sizes among the readers we listed and the best implementation of font sizing.

[Atilla]

Originally Posted by Joe563

For best results, for each typeface, you should copy the regular, bold, italic and bold italic fonts. If you only copy the regular font, the reader does attempt to manipulate the font to show italic and bold but it does not look as good as the true italic or bold font.

Thank you Joe

[SF&F Reader]

Anyone at all interested in the serif / sans serif debate should take a look at this article. I have been through courses on design and was feed the old "serif for print, san serif for screen" philosophy. For many years I admit to being rather snobbish in my adherence to the code. The article linked above successfully revealed my unfair bias. Still, I was surprised to discover that I had been reading on my KT for several days with a san serif font selected (Segoe UI) without any apparent annoyance or decrease in readability. I hadn't even noticed!

I still prefer serif fonts for print (and eReaders), but at least now I know why: personal preference.

[EldRick]

An interesting article with some secondary research behind it. I still prefer serif type for reading.

[moffattm]

There has been some research done that shows that ugly fonts can make the reader retain more information. This is called "disfluent fonts" and it works by making the reader concentrate harder to interpret the font, and in doing so they remember the text more easily.

There has been some suggestion that text books should use fonts that are harder to read, in order to make students retain the information within.

And there have been some people that have suggested they should be used in e-readers as well.

Some links:

The Educational Benefit of Ugly Fonts
Why ugly fonts and messy handwriting make it easier to remember what you've read
How to Change Kindle Fonts, Disfluency and Memory Retention

So maybe we should be asking Kobo to install hard to read fonts on their e-readers?

[beautifulsoup]

Originally Posted by moffattm

There has been some research done that shows that ugly fonts can make the reader retain more information. This is called "disfluent fonts" and it works by making the reader concentrate harder to interpret the font, and in doing so they remember the text more easily.

There has been some suggestion that text books should use fonts that are harder to read, in order to make students retain the information within.

And there have been some people that have suggested they should be used in e-readers as well.

Some links:

The Educational Benefit of Ugly Fonts
Why ugly fonts and messy handwriting make it easier to remember what you've read
How to Change Kindle Fonts, Disfluency and Memory Retention

So maybe we should be asking Kobo to install hard to read fonts on their e-readers?

Haha, fascinating.

It might be interesting to read Poe in Chiller font.
Raymond Chandler in some retro noir font...

etc.