[LINK] Environmental impact of web versus print

Karl Auer kauer at biplane.com.au
Wed Sep 27 10:38:13 AEST 2006


On Wed, 2006-09-27 at 08:19 +1000, Ivan Trundle wrote:
> > this, but typography matters - hugely. Sans-serif fonts reduce  
> > readability.
> 
> Old research. You'll note that contemporary studies on this subject  
> are split on this point. YOUNG readers prefer sans-serif, old readers  
> prefer serif.

Where is the new research? There is a big difference between what people
prefer and what they actually read more easily. Young people may prefer
a sans-serif font, but is their comprehension or retention better? I
don't know, but it certainly isn't necessarily the case. Serif adds
redundancy to most fonts, and in general, redundancy assists
comprehension and retention.

> But in all this, much is based on both habits and pre-conceived ideas  
> about what is good and bad in typography. Our reading habits  
> generally dictate what we are comfortable with.

Again, comfortable isn't necessarily the same thing as comprehensible or
retainable.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)




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