Effects of font size and font style of Traditional Chinese characters on readability on smartphones

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of Traditional-Chinese character sizes and typefaces on both reading time and subjective preference when participants used 5.5-inch smartphones without limiting their viewing distance. An experiment of 3 × 3 completely randomized design with eighteen replicates was employed. One hundred and sixty-two participants performed reading comprehension tasks and subjective preference ratings which were used to measure the readability of nine design combinations. The results suggested that the smaller character size was better than the larger one for reading tasks. Additionally, the most favorite typeface was the Kai or Hei style. These findings might be more appropriate than those of previous studies to be generalized for Traditional-Chinese typographic design on smartphones because the real conditions of operating smartphones were considered in this study.