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Re: re Usability: Serif and Sans-Serif font faces?

Subject: Re: re Usability: Serif and Sans-Serif font faces?
From: Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 10:28:30 -0400




Mark L. Levinson wrote:


I don't find it impossible that serifs help guide the eye
regardless of whether their original purpose was to guide
the eye, to stop stone from cracking, or to pre-plan the
line for the stonecarver. The guidance for the eye may be
helpful even if serendipitous.

True. I was attacking the following text:

"It's historical fact. The issue under discussion in my post wasn't whether, in fact, one style is more readable than the other, but the basic facts that are pretty clear in their reality *historically.*

I don't think I implied that serifs cannot be seen as guiding the eye, although I think Bruce has a better take on it.

(Oh, and monospaced type is more readable with two spaces
between sentences. Wait till your eyes are as old and weak
as mine, and you'll see.)

Mark, I'm reasonably certain my eyes are as old as yours. There is no reason, though, that doubling the space in a monospace font would have a more salubrious effect than doubling it in a proportional font. What I would recommend as a compromise is that you stick with french spacing regardless of font; I think you may like that; and as a side effect of doing so, you'll get the double space in your monospace fonts that you seem to favor. De gustibus non est disputandum.


Bruce writes:
> If you look a line analytically, you'll observe that this
> uniformity provides a frame regardless of whether the font has
> serifs or not. It is perhaps more noticeable with a serif font,
> but it's there with sans serif fonts, too.

If it's more noticeable, then perhaps it's more helpful?
Isn't that the name of the game?


No, that is not the name of the game. Typographers spend their careers playing whack-a-mole with noticeable features. If the reader notices, it's a bad thing. Bruce was speculating about what the novice typographer might notice upon examination of the set line, not about what the reader ought to notice. In any case, the effect on readability is neglible (or nonexistent) in properly set type.



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re Usability: Serif and Sans-Serif font faces?: From: Mark L. Levinson

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