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Easy-to-read language (Leichte Sprache) is a tool for barrier-free communication. In Germany, easy-to-read language is utilised by means of a set of rigid rules. In practice, the rules for typography tend to promote uniform design. From a linguistic viewpoint, different types of text are not differentiated, while from a visual viewpoint, the design is not genre-specific. This interdisciplinary study investigates whether the target group uses typographical features for purposes of text comprehension and can recognize different types of text. Six different types of text were investigated, three of which were present both in a genrespecific design and in easy-to-read language. In total, nine design examples were tested by 38 participants in the study (24 people with so-called mental handicaps and 14 so-called functional illiterates). The data of the study was triangulated with a structured interview and a written selection procedure. The results show that the participants possess graphic knowledge and draw on this in their reception of texts. A genre-specific design enables them to make conclusions about the content of a text without even reading a word. Texts in conventional design were consistently assigned to the correct text type better than texts in generic “easy-to-read” design. This also applied to text types whose linguistic level means they are not used in everyday life by the target group of easy-to-read language. The specifications of the easy-to-read rules make it more difficult to apply graphic knowledge when reading, and more difficult to categorize texts according to their genre. The resultant design is recognised by the participants and associated with institutions for the disabled. This is a sign that a new (dysfunctional) genre has emerged here. The target group with reading difficulties needs an optimum design for its reading materials. We may assume that a conventional, genre-oriented design is better suited than a uniform design according to the hitherto rules. One of our research aims is to determine how to adjust the design to aid the target group. The present study offers initial suggestions as to what might be the decisive parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project attempts to bring more insight to the approach of designing type for different sizes in western Europe during 16th century by making a comparative analysis of seven different sizes of roman type (three display and four text sizes) cut for the print-house of Christophe Plantin in Antwerp by the Flemish punch-cutter Hendrik van den Keere in the period between 1570 - 1580. The aim of the comparison is to gain knowledge about the historical design of small/text and large/display type sizes that might be useful in the production of type today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the effects of reading from paper and an eInk display on recall and reading speed alongside the effects of changes in typographic quality (fluent and disfluent conditions). Both medium and typographic quality were between-subject variables resulting in four groups of participants. Each participant was timed while they read one text. They then completed a general questionnaire before answering multiple-choice questions evaluating their recall of the content they had read. Comparable reading speeds for paper and eInk were recorded and these were slower for disfluent conditions. Improved typographic quality significantly enhanced recall on eInk, whereas for paper participants who read the disfluent condition recalled more. These findings suggest that typographic quality has a significant effect on reading, which is also influenced by the medium. Although recall was better in the disfluent paper condition, some caution should be observed in translating this into recommendations that would result in more effortful reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I argue that designers can benefit from understanding social media spaces from a cultural and communicative perspective. This approach to designing interfaces can expand creative potential and guide the process of shaping innovative and engaging interfaces. Such an approach may also help the designer understand how visual design influences meaning in interfaces and how the meaning is socially situated and dependent on context. I argue that the design can shape online conversations by communicating intended values of the conversational space through designed features. I demonstrate this through deconstructing, analyzing, and juxtaposing existing interfaces in terms of their visual language, intertextual references, and connotations. I discuss two design components of the interface – typography and layout – examples of tools the designer can use to shape meaning. I provide personal reflections, creative suggestions, and visualizations based on my practice as a graphic designer, in addition to metaphors that enable ways of thinking about the potential of such interfaces. The context is online magazines that promote conversation and dialogue – in particular, the interface of Medium.com, a hybrid of a magazine and a blog-publishing platform. The analysis is conducted through a social semiotic framework and a designer’s way of looking – a complementing perspective in an emerging field of social media design research that often emphasizes functional perspectives and use quality. I found that there is creative potential in both what and how designers prioritize to communicate, that may influence the conversational space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading difficulty is a major consequence of vision loss for more than four million Americans with low vision. Difficulty in accessing print imposes obstacles to education, employment, social interaction and recreation. In recent years, research in vision science has made major strides in understanding the impact of low vision on reading, and the dependence of reading performance on text properties. The ongoing transition to the production and distribution of digital documents brings about new opportunities for people with visual impairment. Digital documents on computers and mobile devices permit customization of print size, spacing, font style, contrast polarity and page layout to optimize reading displays for people with low vision. As a result, we now have unprecedented opportunities to adapt text format to meet the needs of visually impaired readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks into the history of letterform research and discusses why the discipline has yet to make the big break within design research. By highlighting two of the most popular focus areas (letter distinctiveness and the role of serifs) and by discussing various forms of methodological shortcomings, the paper suggests that future research into letterforms should (1) draw on results from the field of reading research (2) be based on test material informed by design knowledge and (3) move away from the former tendency of looking for universal answers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the reprint of an October 6, 2013 blog posting on the history of the “commercial at” sign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linguistically and in their visual form, Chinese and English are distinct typographic systems. This paper investigates the relationship between language and typographic design through examining a sample of Chinese and English newspapers published in Hong Kong. The paper outlines key considerations for Chinese typography and approaches to newspaper typography and layout and then explores these further in relation to the newspapers in the sample. The findings indicate that the Chinese newspapers tend to differentiate information through color and graphic devices more extensively and overtly than the English newspapers. The Chinese layouts also show a greater tendency towards symmetrical design and use an atomization approach to layout. These differences highlight the importance of considering the interplay between language and design and adapting descriptive frameworks for particular cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I will argue that processing letter identities and letter positions occupies a central interface between visual and linguistic processing during reading. This is primarily due to the fact that reading words in languages that use an alphabetic script is essentially letter-based. Information about letter identities and letter positions provides the gateway to whole-word written representations, to morphemes such as prefixes and suffixes, and to sound based representations. I will first summarize work on letter identification processes before describing mechanisms for parallel letter processing during single word reading. Finally, I will describe recent work demonstrating parallel processing of written information spanning several words during sentence reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on a talk given at Stanford University in 1983 at a seminar for the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI). It describes the first all-digital type foundry, Bitstream, established in 1981. Outlines, rasterizing, bitmaps, optical sizes, weight gradations, low resolutions, optical alignment, pixel editing, grayscaling and other processes and problems associated with digital fonts today are discussed in this early, unpublished 1985 essay by one of the founders of Bitstream. We thank the Cary collection for providing scans of the manuscript and images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is from a talk given at Stanford University in 1983 at a seminar for the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI). It describes pioneering digital font software developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in 1974. Built for prototype personal workstations, the software uses mathematical curves called “splines” to define the outlines of letter shapes that are converted to bitmaps (pixel mosaics) for use on computer screens and digital printers. This spline-bitmap model is used today for the screens of nearly all computers, smart phones, ebooks, and other text displays. Previously unpublished, the manuscript appears here as digital font archaeology – a glimpse of concepts from four decades ago that became the technology of much that we read today. We are grateful to Patrick Baudelaire for permission to publish it as he wrote it in 1985 and to the Cary Graphic Arts Collection of Rochester Institute of Technology for providing scans of the original manuscript and images in its collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces an arithmetic formula for the calculation of text line length (also referred to as line width) for roman alphabet from 1) the length of the alphabet in lowercase, 2) a value for the desired character density and 3) a mathematical constant. A short-range study with this formula has shown a margin of error of less than 5% in common serifed text typefaces. The potential application of this formula in both print and digital editorial products could be diverse, from the approximate calculation of pages in a book to the establishment of control parameters in responsive web pages. Moreover, this formula would allow designers to make decisions about formal aspects on reading devices based on principles of readability and reading experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The histories of film and video contain a sub-history of media-based critical analysis undertaken through visual analysis, the integration of text and image, and the deployment of the artist's own body as a means of underscoring a critical stance. This essay explores four modes within this critical practice and makes a case for the cinematic humanities, or humanistic inquiry enhanced through the practices and modes of cinema, even as cinema continues to expand into what has been dubbed "the postcinematic." The cinematic humanities include examples of critical visual work that integrate space, time, and the methods of design to produce new ways of knowing. The works created in this arena constitute a form of critical making that reframes the fundamental acts of the humanities through cinematic tools and allows us to reconsider our ability to re-search, re-frame, re-edit, re-contextualize, and re-write. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing products that are considered easy to use and beautiful, yet also effectively addressing the communication problem, can be a difficult challenge for any designer. This paper explains the development of See Word Reading™, a digital tool that explores letterforms when teaching beginning reading principles to children at risk of reading difficulties. After conducting a pilot study with this tool, we assert that dynamic type within digital technologies can offer an even greater opportunity to master alphabetic consolidation by using the engagement of multiple senses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive review of literature on the legibility of printed text in order to provide informed guidance on the design and preparation of typographic materials. To this end, experimental findings are taken into account, as well as the perspective of typographers, graphic designers, and authors. First, the typographic features of text are reviewed and illustrated individually to identify all the features that specifically characterise text layouts. It is emphasized, however, that the various typographic features should be selected in relation to each other, and that it is the combination and manipulation of all these typographic features as a group that makes the text legible. Studies are then reviewed and illustrated on the typographic structure of text as a whole. This information will prove useful to anyone involved in the development of typographic materials, including typographic and graphic designers, teachers and students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how the typographic layout of information influences readers' impressions of magazine contents pages. Thirteen descriptors were used in a paired comparison procedure that assessed whether participants' rhetorical impressions of a set of six controlled documents change in relation to variations in layout. The combinations of layout attributes tested were derived from the structural attributes associated with three patterns of typographic differentiation (high, moderate, and low) described in a previous study (see Moys, 2014). The content and the range of stylistic attributes applied to the test material were controlled in order to focus on layout attributes. Triangulation of the quantitative and qualitative data indicates that, even within the experimental confines of limited stylistic differentiation, the layout attributes associated with patterns of high, moderate, and low typographic differentiation do influence readers' rhetorical judgments. In addition, the findings emphasize the importance of considering interrelationships between clusters of typographic attributes rather than testing isolated variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multi-level writing style allows the reader more flexibility than traditional forms of exposition. Such a format is generally more easily written as well. Various formats for different purposes can be used to improve printed communications if the format is tested on a sample of the intended readership: such testing is as important or more important than any particular typographical scheme. This article will cover 1) background and theory 2) typographical methods and 3) hierarchical ordering of multi-level writing from my perspective (which lacks acquaintance with what others have done in this regard).