Abstract
Two studies were conducted to test the legibility of the English alphabets and words. The first study aims to test the impact of character width on legibility of English alphabets. The second study extended the legibility test of the English alphabet to the words. Sixteen university students participated in the two experiments to discriminate the English alphabets and words initially displayed on a PC screen at its minimum size and enlarged gradually until the participant could recognize it. The results showed that all main effects of type styles, character height, and character width were significant in the legibility test of the alphabet. The alphabet either with a greater character height or width was more legible than that with a smaller character height or width. This result was consistent with other researches of Chinese characters. Both experiments indicated that the Times style was more legible than the Italic style, and the uppercase was more legible than the lowercase in a single letter. However, the number of letters contained in a word did not have a significant impact on its legibility.
Citation
Cai, D., You, M., and Chi, C. (2004) Applying Image Descriptors to the Legibility Assessment of English Alphabets and Words., in Redmond, J., Durling, D. and de Bono, A (eds.), Futureground - DRS International Conference 2004, 17-21 November, Melbourne, Australia. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2004/researchpapers/89
Applying Image Descriptors to the Legibility Assessment of English Alphabets and Words.
Two studies were conducted to test the legibility of the English alphabets and words. The first study aims to test the impact of character width on legibility of English alphabets. The second study extended the legibility test of the English alphabet to the words. Sixteen university students participated in the two experiments to discriminate the English alphabets and words initially displayed on a PC screen at its minimum size and enlarged gradually until the participant could recognize it. The results showed that all main effects of type styles, character height, and character width were significant in the legibility test of the alphabet. The alphabet either with a greater character height or width was more legible than that with a smaller character height or width. This result was consistent with other researches of Chinese characters. Both experiments indicated that the Times style was more legible than the Italic style, and the uppercase was more legible than the lowercase in a single letter. However, the number of letters contained in a word did not have a significant impact on its legibility.