List of typefaces and their readability

[Butler, Darren J Ctr 584 CBSS/GBHAC]

> I'm looking for a list of typefaces, as in their relative readability.

> The top five for reading onscreen and the top five for reading on
hardcopy. Something like that.


I'd be very interested to know the top 5 myself.

General info (which may contain only a Colonel of the truth):
As I understand it, and as you probably already know, Serif fonts tend
to score highest when used in printed materials. The serifs aid in
readability by providing additional visual cues. Small font-size San
Serif is more difficult to discern then small-size serif in printed
material.

It's just the opposite for video screens, the serifs tend to produce a
false frequency in TV and computer screens that makes the characters
look distorted or  even run together. This effect (I think it's called
"aliasing") gets worse as character size gets smaller. Therefore, the
san serif fonts are preferable because there is less character
information for the video screen to process, render, and separate from
the adjoining characters.

Fonts.com has an interesting article about font legibility vs font
readability, as well as other useful typographic info.

'Didn't answer your specific question but IHTH!

Blessings,
Darren


****************************************
Darren J. Butler
Sr. Technical Writer-Editor, Template Wrangler, Mil-Spec Pharisee
Integrated Data for Maintenance
NG Corp

-----Original Message-----
From:
techwr-l-bounces+darren.butler.ctr=robins.af.mil at lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+darren.butler.ctr=robins.af.mil at lists.techwr-l.
com] On Behalf Of Cardimon, Craig
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 12:18 PM
To: Techwr-l
Subject: List of typefaces and their readability

Don't let me down here, people. 

 

I have just said publically that what I don't know writing-wise, I can
generally find out from you-all. 

 

No pressure.

 

I'm looking for a list of typefaces, as in their relative readability. 

 

The top five for reading onscreen and the top five for reading on
hardcopy. Something like that.

 

The typeface in question is Courier.

 

I shall be doing my own homework, of course, but since I have bragged
about this listserv, I figured I would give you another shot at fame!
Grin.

 

 

 

 

Craig Cardimon

Technical Writer

Marketing Systems Group

ccardimon at m-s-g.com

 

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