Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
I'm sorry but I no longer have that information. These were studies on typography that I read maybe 15-20 years ago. Of course, one good indication of the truth of the findings is that most books -- and certainly all lengthy ones -- use serif type for the text. They will use sans serif for short passages or for tables and figures, but rarely for body text.
|
Some years back (read 30+) I took a grad course in publication layout and design. While san-serif fonts seem more "modern", the eye can read serif fonts quicker and with less strain than san-serif fonts. So when possible, use a serif font for the body copy. Titles and insert boxes can be of any font. The serifs, according to what I read at the time, help the eye move along the line and contribute to the identification of the group of characters as a word rather than a collection of letters. This in turn aids the brain in translation of the printed information to concepts. In short, increased reading speed.
The easiest font for me to read is New Century Schoolbook. It, like Bookman, is an open faced, non-condensed font. It takes far more space for a paragraph set in New Century Schoolbook than the same paragraph set in Times New Roman (where even the normal font is somewhat condensed.)
The hardest body font for me to read is New Baskerville. There is something about the construction of the glyphs (or letterforms) that that make it hard for me to read. My speed drops to less than one-half from Times New Roman or New Century Schoolbook and I need a break every few minutes.
On low resolution devices (i.e.: ~ 72 dpi or lower) a san-serif font seems to reproduce better. For the Sony Reader I prefer a sans font. For my cell phone I go the other way and stick to a san-serif font.