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At 11:43 AM 4/6/99 -0700, Chuck Martin wrote:
>From one of that class' texts: "The typefaces we learned to read with
>are the ones we are used to and that we therefore find most congenial
>and comfortable. In the United States those happen to be the faces with
>serifs (Century, Primer, Times Roman, and so on). In Europe, sans serif
>is the rule rather than the exception."
One reason that I see used repeatedly to recommend serif fonts for text
is that serifs speed up reading; sans serif text is read more slowly than
serif text. I've often thought that in the presentation of highly technical
information, slowing down the eye may actually be a good thing, that slower
reading may increase comprehension. I believe that many readers of technical
information subvocalize when they read, slowing down their reading speed
even further than font manipulation could account for, to increase
comprehension.
If that is in deed the case, it hardly matters what font we use -- well,
as long as we don't use some wacky display font, that is.
