Quote:
Originally Posted by Japes
I suppose that we will just have to agree to disagree. I've tested every single font for which I posted screen shots with AT LEAST an hour or two of reading each (something that I doubt anyone else on this forum or most others can claim), with the exception of the ones I posted last night, and, again, Caecilia Bold is the one that allows me to read the longest without noticeable fatigue.
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There are lots of variables that affect this, every person will differ in terms of acuity, differences in lighting, reading distance, etc. What ultimately matters, though, is the the distinctiveness of the shapes and patterns of the words rather than the individual letters. If you find Caecilia works for you, then you might want to investigate Courier as well (another slab-serif face), which has been
shown to offer benefits in situations of critical legibility. I generally read at a logMAR print size of around 0.5 (x-height 1.6mm, reading distance ~350mm), which is well above the critical threshold for legibility.
Amazon chose Caecilia because it relieved them from having to worry too much about anti-aliasing initially, but that didn't prevent them
messing it up when the Kindle 2 was first released. I don't think they spent too much time agonising over the decision.
The Medium version may well be suitable for those who want a slightly heavier font without going overboard, but as you can see from the shots I posted, the value of the Caption variants lies in the way they beef-up the more fragile parts of the letterforms (such as the serifs on the 'L') compared to the rest of the character.