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Subject:RE: Usability: Serif and Sans-Serif font faces? From:Solena -dot- LEMOIGNE -at- fr -dot- thalesgroup -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 14 May 2004 09:44:53 +0200
List members,
If you are not interested in this thread, please ignore this message. For
those who (like me) are on digest, scroll down. All quotes between "" are by
Mr Geoff Hart.
"I imagine Nordic and French readers, who tend to prefer sans serif text,
read
significantly slower than North American readers despite their font
choice, and to me, that's the compelling point in this whole debate."
Talking from the French side, I've read little material that was set in sans
serif type. Any Nordic readers ready to share experience?
I had a quick survey of the printed material we have at our company library
and everything except some magazines were set using serif fonts. In fact,
the use of serif was consistent for books and journals, and the use of sans
serif was nearly consistent for magazines.
Could the use of one kind of fonts reflect the use of the media? I wonder if
serif is preferred for printed stuff on which people will spend more time,
and sans serif for material that is read more quickly, or that can be
scanned. I've noticed that people tend to read properly books and journal
articles, but scan the magazines for relevant information. "Perhaps it's a
"professional/technical" versus "informal/recreational" difference".
"Certainly, sans serif text produces a more "open" appearance, with very
different (less dense) "color" than serif text".
Remembering the story books of my youngest nephew (I'm the story-auntie),
the use of serif and sans serif fonts is pretty consistent: first are the
words and very short sentences set in sans serif fonts. Then from the age of
5-ish, the text is set in serif fonts. Could that be that the sans serif
fonts help get the image of the letters clearer, and once the letters are
strung into words, and once the words are strung into sentences, then
typesetters move onto serif. How come? Could the expected fluentness in
reading of the uers affect the way type is set?
I've noticed that when I get a manual set in a sans serif font, I read much
slower, which could indicate that I'm less used to reading sans serif text.
If you were to present me with the same manual, one set in a serif font and
one set in a sans serif font, I'd go for the serif one; because the sans
serif looks cheap, and "Sans serif manuals always seem like the designer is
trying to be different or trendy rather than effective".
Some readers could not be at ease with text set in a serif font, because,
let's imagine, the letters would be more difficult to individualise, so the
words would be more difficult to recognise, and there would be so much
interference during the reading process that the instruction conveyed would
be completely lost, rendering the manual useless.
Could that be that people who are not fluent in reading tend not to open
"War and Peace", but magazines instead? Their experience with reading sans
serif will then be greated than mine.
Question to the community : has one of you come across some studies that
attach themselves to the reading fluency in parallel with serif or sans
serif fonts? Or reading fluency linked to age (like for my nephew's books)
or for readers with dyslexia? Could it have a real influence or is
everything I wrote mere speculation?
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