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Dan Goldstein replied to my reply: <<That may be the right answer, but
not to my question.>>
And it's all about you, huh? What about my need to climb upon the
podium and pronounce at great length? <gdrlh>
Sorry... I didn't try looking them up because I don't buy the study
results, but since you're actually looking for a _useful_ answer <g>:
<<I asked if anyone knew how to *find* the studies that Leah cites --
so I can read them first-hand.>>
If you can't find them online via Google (use the appropriate keywords:
typography, legibility, justification, readability), I'd recommend
contacting the local university library and asking them to find the
articles. For that matter, why not contact Leah directly and ask her
for the full citation? A quick Google turns up her e-mail address
(leah -at- words -dot- israel -dot- net).
<<Your reply suggests that you've read the Hartely & Burnhill, Coe, and
Misanchuk studies. Can you point me to a URL?>>
Haven't read those specific studies, but I've read a great many such
studies over the years. I even have some of the better ones packed away
in a box somewhere for future reference. But I'm an empiricist in these
matters (blame my scientific training), and suggest that rather than
relying on study results, you try a little experiment: It's trivially
easy to demonstrate any legibility result that you want with modern DTP
software (even with Word) by simply juggling any of a dozen typographic
parameters until you get the desired result for the one parameter you
wish to draw conclusions about.
All typographic studies that I've seen are fatally flawed for one of
two reasons: First, they may not follow the basic scientific condition
of _ceteris paribus_--"all else being equal". Type is heavily
multifactorial, and it's simply not possible to obtain a definitive
conclusion based on any single factor unless you rigorously control all
other factors ("all else being equal"). But as soon as you exercise
that degree of control, the study conditions become so restrictive that
you limit the applicability of the conclusions to those conditions
alone. That's the seecond reason.
Justification is a single factor, thus... [proof left to student]
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