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

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

On my run this morning, this question occurred to me:

If serifs are the aid to readability that some people claim that they 
are, why don't we teach children to add serifs when they learn to print?

If there ever were a time when people need all the help in readability 
they can get, then surely it's when they're first learning to read and 
write. I suppose you could put the reason down to lack of knowledge. 
Also, of course, what is easy to write isn't necessarily what is easy to 
print. Still, the fact remains that serifs aren't upheld as part of the 
ideal letter form. And a quick scan of Internet sources shows that some 
teachers think that sans serifs are easier for children learning to read.

Another interesting tidbit: dyslexics, according to some evidence, find 
that serifs make it harder for them to tell one letter from another. 
Could this fact be taken to mean that sans serifs are more readable 
because they are more legible?

Understand that I have seen no evidence to convince me that either 
serifs or sans serifs are to be preferred over the other. I mention 
these facts only to play devil's advocate. The fact that you can build a 
plausible-sounding argument for preferring either one actually 
reinforces my tendency to think that any differences are small or 
non-existent.

--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177
http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield


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