The degree to which glyphs in text are understandable or recognisable based on their appearance.
Readability
Refers to the ease with which a reader can scan over paragraphs of type. In other words, how easy it is to read! While legibility is basically dependent on the typeface design, readability is dependent on the manipulation or handling of the type. A highly legible typeface can be made unreadable by poor typographic design. Factors which affect readability include: line lengths, point size, leading, typeface selection, spacing, type alignment, and background.
What Effects Readability?
Legibility The legibility of individual glyphs will contribute to the readability of the font.
Size
Larger fonts are readable at a distance but become less readable up close, because the eyes have to move around from word to word too much.
Larger fonts are readable at a distance but become less readable up close, because the eyes have to move around from word to word too much.
Justification
Especially in larger pieces of text, left justification gives the eye a constant place to return to after the end of a line and speeds up reading
Especially in larger pieces of text, left justification gives the eye a constant place to return to after the end of a line and speeds up reading
Kerning
Letters that are kerned too much become harder to distinguish. Fonts are supplied at the correct kern so further kerning isn't required, except when working with a specific letter pair on a large scale.
Letters that are kerned too much become harder to distinguish. Fonts are supplied at the correct kern so further kerning isn't required, except when working with a specific letter pair on a large scale.
Tracking
Tracking begins to reduce a font's readability if it is applied too much as the words become too spread out and lose their shapes.
Tracking begins to reduce a font's readability if it is applied too much as the words become too spread out and lose their shapes.
Leading
Leading helps separate lines from each other and make it easier to see the shapes of the words, too close and glyphs will overlap, too far and the leap from one line to the next will interrupt flow. Most programs have a default leading setting of 120% of point size to aid readability.
Leading helps separate lines from each other and make it easier to see the shapes of the words, too close and glyphs will overlap, too far and the leap from one line to the next will interrupt flow. Most programs have a default leading setting of 120% of point size to aid readability.
Case
A mix of upper and lower case letters is easiest to read, as capitals are less distinct and create less distinctive word shapes.
A mix of upper and lower case letters is easiest to read, as capitals are less distinct and create less distinctive word shapes.
Border
A border can make the end of lines more obvious and make the words on the outside more readable due to negative space.
A border can make the end of lines more obvious and make the words on the outside more readable due to negative space.
Hyphenation
Excessive hyphenation can cause text to appear jumpy and interrupt the flow of text, this can be fixed manually.
Excessive hyphenation can cause text to appear jumpy and interrupt the flow of text, this can be fixed manually.
Line Length
The ideal line length is around 60 characters including spaces, longer or shorter lines will slow down reading.
The ideal line length is around 60 characters including spaces, longer or shorter lines will slow down reading.
Line Weight
Large amounts of writing become difficult to read in either bold or light fonts due to the imbalance of negative/positive space.
Large amounts of writing become difficult to read in either bold or light fonts due to the imbalance of negative/positive space.
Italic
Italic text is more difficult to read in large amounts because the shapes are less recognisable.
Italic text is more difficult to read in large amounts because the shapes are less recognisable.
The larger sized fonts read first in this arrangement as they grab our attention. The sentence should read 'quick brown' then 'fox' as it is below so would naturally be read in that order then jumps to 'the' being last despite it being the boldest font.
Type Hierarchies
Communication
One of the most important techniques for effectively communicating (or “honouring”) content is the use of typographic hierarchy. Typographic hierarchy is a system for organising type that establishes an order of importance within the data, allowing the reader to easily find what they are looking for and navigate the content. It helps guide the reader’s eye to where a section begins and ends, whilst enabling the user to isolate certain information based on the consistent use of style throughout a body of text.
Use in Web
It should be pointed out that when designing for the web, there’s another layer to take into account. A webpage itself has a hierarchy that not only is read, but contains interaction. The page as a whole must be designed in a way that clearly communicates to the user what actions are available and how to easily access the information they seek, how to purchase an item, etc.
Spacing Matters
One of the most important concepts in type design is spacing. It’s one of the most difficult concepts to grasp for beginning designers, yet it is also one of the most visually obvious. Proper typographic spacing is critical in establishing hierarchy; it can make the difference between confusion and clarity. It is used in the majority of hierarchical systems, and it is present in all of the examples in this article.
The rule of proximity in design generally states that related items should appear closer to each other than items that are not related. However, proper spacing involves more than just a hard return between sections of type. Generally, a hard return creates too much space between content in the context of a paragraph. Paragraph spacing – either before or after – should be used. I tend to use paragraph spacing that is equal to half of the line-height (or leading). This typically allows the group of content to hold together while providing an adequate division of content within it.
Legibility is concerned with how easy it is to distinguish individual letters. The simpler a type design is, the more legible it is. So why do less-than-legible typefaces even exist? Because typeface designers love to create unique and distinctive designs, of course. While it is generally better to always choose a legible type, there are times when distinctiveness may be more important than legibility. For example, when selecting a font for a unique and distinctive company logo.
There are three design features that make a typeface legible:
1. Large X-Height:
A large x-height increases the negative space within each letter. This makes it’s shape much more discernable.
2. Large Counters:
The negative space within a letter is called a counter. When a typeface has large counters, it is easier to distinguish the shape of each individual letter.
3. Simple Letterforms:
The simpler a letterform, the more legible it is. Sans serif types are generally more legible than their serif counterparts because they do not have any serifs interfering with the shapes of the letters. However, this does not mean that sans serifs are necessarily easier to READ in text. Actually, serif types are generally considered MORE readable. The exception to this rule is on-screen. Because of on-screen distortion, sans serif is the best choice for readability
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