Comments on: Which Are More Legible: Serif or Sans Serif Typefaces?

By: pir

pir — Sun, 13 May 2012 06:57:03 +0000

very interesting; it’s refreshing to see a solid analysis of usually uncritically accepted studies. my own anecdotal evidence from several decades of being a voracious reader of print on paper as well as on screen, is that i vastly prefer certain well-designed sans serif faces, though it matters more to me on screen. FWIW i also prefer light type on dark background on screen (but not pure white on black); it makes my eyes tire a lot less when i spend 12 hours staring at a monitor. i am myopic and have astigmatism, not always corrected as much as might be needed, which might have something to do with both preferences. aesthetically i am agnostic; i love some serif typefaces just as much as some sans serifs, and i am happy typeface designers continue to give us new ones.

it’s therefore always seemed strange to me, this insistence that serifs are definitely more legible/readable. i think you’re right; acculturation is a strong motivator, and actually individual aspects of typeface design are of more importance than serif or not. for the website i am currently building i am preparing alternate style sheets for people like me versus what the majority seems to prefer; fortunately this is very easily done on the web.

have you come across any research on text justification? i really wish nobody did it ever on screen, and fewer people on paper; it can interfere with rapid word recognition for me.

By: United Staaaaaates! « Eigenblogger

United Staaaaaates! « Eigenblogger — Fri, 11 May 2012 19:04:02 +0000

[...] any interest at all in typography and/or the serif/sans serif debate, I strongly urge you to read this. It’s an article discussing whether serif fonts or san serif fonts are more legible. It’s [...]

By: Wanda Hodder

Wanda Hodder — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:04:31 +0000

I have a print disability and sans serif is a more accessible for me. It’s not preference and when I create alternate format for students I use sans serif. The little extra strokes are just extra. I enjoyed the break down on font features. This is something I need to spend more time working with to improve readability in the alternate format I develop.

By: Typografi på nettet | Victor Vikene

Typografi på nettet | Victor Vikene — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:54:23 +0000

[...] Which Are More Legible: Serif or Sans Serif Typefaces? – av Alex Poole [...]

By: Alex Poole

Alex Poole — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:54:23 +0000

Thanks Lynne, glad to be of service!

By: Lynne

Lynne — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:51:52 +0000

Great Article!
I was just on the phone with one of my clients “which is better” and “I can’t remember which is which”…

You answered all my questions with enough detail to satisfy any Scholar out there!

Thanks so Much,
Lynne

By: Ollie

Ollie — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 15:29:11 +0000

I’ve seen that sans serif fonts are better for electronic devices. If the text is very small with long lines, serif might be better.

With electronic devices, the “body” of the font is often more “bulky” with sans serif, i.e. easy to see while with serif fonts are often thin in the body to fit the serifs for the same font size.

I pick sans serif for electronic devices (Kindle, phones) and serif for books. This might change in the future when screen resolutions increase, of course.

By: Liam McGee

Liam McGee — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:48:08 +0000

Excellent article, Alex – saw it via links from http://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/wiki/Easy_to_Read. May I add a more recent paper to your references stack – using eye-tracking to investigate legibility (see
http://www.mendeley.com/research/the-influence-of-text-legibility-on-eye-movements-during-reading/ )

By: Jeffr

Jeffr — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 03:42:35 +0000

Alex,

Thanks for your very interesting research and also thanks to all for the comments and replies.

By: Alex Poole

Alex Poole — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:50:40 +0000

Thanks for you comment Gary, I’ve posted a detailed reply in this post: http://alexpoole.info/the-problem-with-colin-wheildons-legibility-research.