Week 10 Page 4: Legibility Guidelines

Legibility Basics

There is a difference between the terms, readability and legibility but most people seem to use them interchangeably. The slide above gives an overview of what we mean by legibility. Here is a short explanation of legibility again!!

Legibility refers to how easy it is to identify letterforms (the individual shapes of letters) and short bursts of text such as headlines.

When you're using type on the web, selecting a legible typeface is critical. The slide image above gives some guidelines for picking a typeface with letter shapes that can be easily identified.

The simplest typefaces are best... generally SANS SERIFS (like Verdana).

This is Verdana (sans serif) 

This is Times New Roman (serif)

Which typeface has the simplest, clearest letters? Verdana or Times New Roman?

Avoid Typefaces with Poor Legibility!!

It's always tempting to pick a fancy typeface with character and mood. However... sometimes it's not the best choice. Here are some characteristics to avoid (if you want viewers to read a headline or subheading with ease):

1. Fancy or large serifs
2. Distorted letter shapes (scripts, decorative faces, condensed etc.)
3. Excessively large or small x-height
4. Very short ascenders and descenders

Legibility Rogue's Gallery 

Here is a rogue's gallery of illegible typefaces from Dafont.com Links to an external site.. Based on the "avoid" list given above, can you figure out why?