Sterling Koch: > I'd be interested to find if anyone else found the study mentioned > below a bit flawed in its method > (http://www.message.uk.com/textprefs/). > > In my opinion, going from top to bottom, there's too many variables to > handle at once. <snip - further detail>
Isn't that really the essence of the font selection problem? That is, legibility is affected by all these things (and probably some more): - familiarity of the font - amount of visual complexity of the font (serifs, variation of stroke width, slope, size of counters, slope of counters relative to font, etc etc) - the way the type is set (leading, line lengths, space between paragraphs, space between words, kerning or not of letters, etc etc) - the display or print medium (large or small screen, moving or static screen etc etc) - the lighting (ambient, direct, glare, back-lit, etc etc) - the user's abilities, task, and motivation. I tried the textprefs thing. Fun to experiment with, but what about the ability to change to a more representative text? What about the user's task: did we need to proof-read it, get a sense of the topic communicated, decide whether to skip reading it, etc etc? I believe that the aim of the original question in this thread was to pick the best starting size of font and then provide features to allow users to adjust from there. Good idea. But I don't believe that research will ever tell us 'the best' answer. The typography research just doesn't deliver. There are too many variables that affect the problem, and to conduct the research there is inevitably too much simplification to help. So, we rely on craft, tips, and good old fashioned testing with our target users. My personal tip: - go at least one, and possibly two, sizes larger than you think you need. In tests, many, many participants have complained to me "That's too small". Right across all ages, tasks, abilities. So far, I haven't had anyone complain "that's too large". (It will come - eventually - and more quickly if all I can persuade a few more clients and colleagues to try my tip. Well, that's what I've been hoping for a few years now but ain't happened yet). And of course, I applaud all the recommendations to size in ems rather than fixed. Best Caroline ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
