Sans Serif Typeface Research Articles

EDITORIAL

We are pleased to announce something readers with keen eyes will already have noticed, namely, that Derek Matravers has taken over from Elisabeth Schellekens as reviews editor. Derek is a member of the philosophy department at the Open University, currently its Head, and a Bye-Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He has contributed articles and reviews to the BJA for many years, and we are delighted that he has joined the editorial team. Some readers may also have noticed that the journal's appearance has changed. The cover has a new design, the typography and layout are new, and the page-size has increased. The last of these changes will allow the journal to be more hospitable to illustrations, such as images and musical examples. The reasons for the others are aesthetic, although not (if such a category exists) purely so. The most important of these is the change in typeface on the cover, from Times New Roman to Gill Sans. As soon as we considered changing it at all, the choice was inevitable. Eric Gill is the greatest of all British designers of typefaces, and Gill Sans expresses the values to which the BJA is committed much better that we can do in editorial prose. It is as legible and humane as Bembo, and completely modern, mainly because, although Gill was a sculptor and stone-cutter, it is independent of the chisel, brush and pen. We stuck to Gill Sans for the Journal's ‘skeleton’ (contents page, running heads, etc.), but because sans-serif typefaces are less comfortable to read in blocks of text, we chose Perpetua, also designed by Gill, for the flesh.

Influence of Light on Typographic and Colorimetric Properties of Inkjet Prints

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of light on changes in typographic and colorimetric properties of inkjet prints in order to establish an appropriate typeface style and type size for business correspondence to ensure information permanence. The prints were made with six inkjet printers from different manufacturers on four different office papers. Four different widely used typefaces (one old-style, one transitional, and two sans-serif) in five different sizes (6, 8, 10, 12, and 16 pt) were tested. The resistance of printed business correspondence to light was evaluated according to the ISO 12040 standard by means of Xenotest Alpha (Atlas). The differences in CIELAB values and the total colour difference were determined spectrophotometrically. The differences in typographic tonal density and wicking of typefaces were measured numerically with image analysis. The obtained results show the smallest typographic tonal density at the old-style typeface. After the exposure to light, the biggest difference in typographic tonal density was observed at one of the sans-serif typefaces. The most noticeable difference in typographic tonal density occurred at type sizes 6 and 8 pt.

Eric Gill: Cut in Stone

The eccentric English sculptor, engraver, and letter carver, Eric Gill (1882–1940), is best known today for the typeface named after him, Gill Sans. Designed in 1928, it is a simple, legible face based on the classical letterforms that Gill used for carving in stone—letters he had seen on the Trajan Column in Rome. By going back to typography's roots, Gill managed to produce a sans-serif typeface that was classic but had an unmistakable modern look. It is still widely used today. Eric Gill. Nigel Holmes © 2007

Examining children's reading performance and preference for different computer-displayed text

This study investigated how common online text affects reading performance of elementary school-age children by examining the actual and perceived readability of four computer-displayed typefaces at 12- and 14-point sizes. Twenty-seven children, ages 9 to 11, were asked to read eight children's passages and identify erroneous/substituted words while reading. Comic Sans MS, Arial and Times New Roman typefaces, regardless of size, were found to be more readable (as measured by a reading efficiency score) than Courier New. No differences in reading speed were found for any of the typeface combinations. In general, the 14-point size and the examined sans serif typefaces were perceived as being the easiest to read, fastest, most attractive, and most desirable for school-related material. In addition, participants significantly preferred Comic Sans MS and 14-point Arial to 12-point Courier. Recommendations for appropriate typeface combinations for children reading on computers are discussed.

Enhancement of peripheral letter recognition by typographic features

This study demonstrates an experimental strategy that can improve peripheral letter recognition by modifying typographic design features based on psychophysical data. The approach is based on the assumption that peripheral letter recognition is a fundamental step to reading with eccentric viewing. The experimental design combines psychophysical testing, data analysis by confusion matrices, letter modification of the most frequently confused letter pairs by font design software, and subsequent psychophysical re-testing. Letters of the Sloan set in a common sans serif typeface were displayed tachistoscopically at an eccentricity of 8 degrees. Results from six subjects show that the most frequently confused letter pairs can vary between subjects. If only one feature in each of two out of ten letters belonging to a frequently confused pair is modified, mean recognition performance over the whole set can be improved significantly. This effect may also be augmented by secondary interactions between the modified...

Skimming electronic newspaper headlines: A study of typeface, point size, screen resolution, and monitor size

The effects of typeface, point size, screen resolution and monitor size on legibility were studied in a task-setting similar to skimming headlines in an electronic newspaper. Times New Roman, Book Antiqua, Century Gothic, and Arial were the four typefaces used in the study. The point sizes used to present the headlines were 14 point, 20 point, and 24 point sizes. Two resolutions, 640× 480 pixels and 1024 × 768 pixels, were used in the study on two different monitor sizes—14″ (0.28 mm dot-pitch) and 19″ (0.31 mm dot-pitch). All the headlines used in the study averaged 6 words in length with an average pixel width of 410 pixels when displayed at a logical dots-per-inch of 96 dpi under Microsoft Windows. The headlines were shown to 28 subjects using a brief-exposure method. The results indicate the existence of interactions between all factors considered in this study. The results of further investigation into the simple interaction effects of typeface × point size as well as the simple, simple main effects of typeface are presented for the 14″ monitor. The best overall legibility was achieved by the Times New Roman and Arial typefaces. These two typefaces represent a serif and a sans-serif typeface tuned specifically for the display of text on a computer screen.

The connotative dimensions of selected display typefaces

This paper reports research on the use of the semantic differential to determine the connotative meaning of ten display typefaces using laymen as subjects. There were several surprising outcomes of the study. Helvetica, the only sans serif typeface, was not perceived as differing significantly from serifed typefaces on most dimensions. Examples of different typeface classifications were also perceived as having similar connotative meanings, and two very distinctive novelty typefaces were surprisingly neutral on all factoral dimensions.

Can children read familiar words set in unfamiliar type?

Materials f or teaching young children to read are usually printed in a sans serif type face. Teacher's assume that children cannot read other types. Five year old beginning readers were asked to read familiar words and sentences set in unfamiliar type faces. It was found that they could read text set in a variety of types.