
Serif vs. Sans Serif Legibility - d0mine
http://www.alexpoole.info/academic/literaturereview.html
======
fortes
I used to work with the typography team at Microsoft (say what you will about
MS, but they've invested a fair amount of money into readability -- sadly, not
all of that work has made it into their products).

The general thinking there was as follows:

\- In print, serif is more readable

\- Traditional computer screens didn't have the resolution to display subtle
serifs, and sans-serifs typically looked better / were more readable

\- With higher-resolution monitors and ClearType (and similar sub-pixel
technologies), you're getting closer to the point where having serifs can make
a difference

\- However, a big part of reading speed has to do with familiarity. At this
point most computer literate people have spent far more time reading sans-
serif fonts on screen, which can skew results toward sans-serif.

(edit: apparently, i'm too retarded to know how to make lists on HN. where art
thou, markdown?)

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henning
A sidenote about reading on the web: I skipped straight to the conclusion.

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soundsop
Short summary:

Most studies conclude that there is no discernible difference between the
legibility of serif and sans serif. Some studies that claim serif is better
used poor methodology; however, they are still widely cited as evidence in
favor of serif typefaces.

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BrandonM
I voted the article up, not because I found the subject matter all that
interesting, but I loved how thoroughly cited it was, especially the notes on
the various sources.

------
d0mine
Related to question: which font is preferable for reading long texts on a
computer?

~~~
paulsilver
Personally, I found when Slashdot went over to sans-serif fonts I read a lot
less of the comments than when they had a serif font. My eyes just seemed to
get tired more quickly.

Having done some fiddling around with fonts after noticing this effect I've
found that I prefer serif fonts for large / long lumps of text. However, I'm
sure if you ask around you'll find lots of people who prefer it the other way
around. I've been thinking of adding a little control panel to some of my
sites to let people easily switch between the two. It's probably not worth it
for short pieces, but for articles it could be worthwhile.

