Ragged right instead of full justification.A font, which is suitable for a headline is mostly harder to read if the text that it is used for becomes longer.A typeface does not work equally good at every place of an interface.There are also some hints regarding readability: are important in order to judge the readability. Therefore, facts like weight, size, alignment, color etc. It is not about how the reader recognizes each character, but about how readable the text is in its entirety. This should be considered in combination with the first point mentioned – the width should only be so large that a natural typeface is still guaranteed.Ī typeface‘s readability, on the other hand, does not refer to the individual character, but to the combination of characters in a text. Letters with a small width make it difficult for the reader to distinguish some characters, e.g.The letter’s width should not be too small.Use tighter spacing for big fonts to clarify word structures.Use generous spacing for small fonts, because otherwise, the human eye will have problems distinguishing the letters.As a result, the character as an individual entity is given more weight than the text itself. Letterforms with unconventional shapes (special decorations, unusual proportions…) “catch” the reader’s eye and impair reading.The typeface should not use unconventional letterforms.To maximize legibility, you should consider the following points: Typefaces designed for newspapers or letterpress printing have the distinction of being highly legible. As an example, decorative fonts have got a low legibility, because they are optimized for looking good and not for being read with ease. Legibility refers only to the form factors. stroke thickness, serifs and other form factors. The legibility of a typeface refers to the design of one single letter, affected by e.g. Legibility and Readability – the theoretical aspectĪt first glance, legibility and readability seem to be the same thing, but in fact, they are not. Additionally, there are some special font groups like group VIII: cursive handwritings, which is specified only by the connection of the characters and the look of a contemporary handwriting. These groups differ from each other in their time of origin, the kind of painting strokes, whether or not they have serifs, special axes, the axis and form of possibly existing serifs and many other characteristics. group II: french rennaisance-antiqua, group IV: classic antiqua or group XI: foreign typefaces. This norm categorizes typefaces into eleven groups, e.g. Serifs are the small lines, running across the end of the strokes of a letter.Ī finer grained classification of fonts is proposed in the German DIN norm 16518 (“Typefaces”). If you leave out fun-typefaces like Hypmotizin, the field of fonts suitable for interface design can be split into two parts: fonts with or without serifs. How do fonts differ from each other? The normative aspect But if you follow some basic rules of typography, you will be able to reduce the list of qualified fonts to a small number. Unfortunately, there is no formula for success, which delivers the perfect typeface for your special interface. Apart from the letter’s height, line distance, paragraph height, spacing between letters and many more factors must be considered.īut how can you find the font suitable to your interface? But this is also about more than just a single number. Furthermore, parameters like font weight, the use of small caps and so on must also be dealt with.Īfter finding the right typeface, you will probably shift your attention to the right font size. Simple, complex, playful, straight-line, two- as well as three-dimensional fonts… there are obviously no limits to the typesetter’s phantasy. In reality, you will be surprised by the complexity of trying to answer just the first question – the number of typefaces seems to be unlimited. “Which font will I use?” and „How large will the font be?“. At a first glance, this task can be solved with the help of simple decision rules: When creating an interface, every designer will be confronted with the question of the right typeface. It contains some hints an pointers that simplify the search for the right typeface. This article is aimed at providing a common introduction to the topic „choosing the right font”. Texts are important parts of most user interfaces, be it, e.g., as form field labels or longer help texts.
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