Typeface provides an avenue of
creativity and design choice for both professionals of art design or amateurs
alike. Many wonder when choosing: which is the best font to use? There are many
factors to consider when deciding upon the right font for a particular project.
One of the leading questions is whether or not serif is better than sans-serif,
or does it even matter?
In his article “Digital Designs,”
Steve Barth examines the importance fonts have. He explains that a UK airplane
headed for Glasgow, Scotland instead flew to Cardiff, Wales upon “misreading
the computer screen because the text displayed was too small.”
He further states it was too hard
to read the difference between the codes for Glasgow “EGPF” and Cardiff “EGFF.”
This is only one instance of the problems that using the wrong font can pose in
daily life.
The
Defense Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences in India conducted a test
to see which fonts were easier to read on-screen. Forty youths were asked to
participate, all with 20/20 vision.
They were
given eighteen identical passages, all the same reading level, to observe how
reading changed with differing fonts and sizes. They recorded how long it took
them to read each passage and then asked participants questions about which
they found easier to read and why.
The fonts in
question were as follows: Times New Roman, Georgia, Courier New, Arial,
Verdana, and Tahoma. These were presented in three different sizes: 12, 13, and
14.
It was found
that Serif fonts were easier to read than Sans regardless of the three sizes.
Courier New 14, a serif font, was recorded as the fastest to read of all the
possible combinations. Second place was Arial 14, which is a sans-serif font.
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| Figure 1: A chart of font preferences. Photo: Google Images. |
In another
survey conducted, cited by Elizabeth Russell-Minda, stated that “65% of the
participants found 14-point Universe font [san-serif] to be the most legible,
compared to Century Schoolbook [serif].” This contrast of results between the
two tests throws confusion and further argument into the Serif/San war.
It really
seems to come to down to the writer’s choice of which typeface is the best to
use for web design. The argument of serif or san-serif seems almost invalid. It
seems decision-making should place more emphasis on x-height, thickness, and
font size of individual letters and not whether a typeface has serifs. In her
article, “Typography For All,” Lesa Snider recommends using Verdana as a Web
typeface because “its larger x-height makes it easier to read.”
There is
still a fairly even split between the two font types. It appears to come down
to preference mainly, but there still seems to be a general partiality for
serif fonts until they get too small, then the preference appears to be
sans-serif. Figure 1 shows a chart of popular typefaces among users.
There may not
be an absolute truth to which typographic style is the best for different
media, but there are definitely methods to determining which to use. San-serif
is easier to read when small, but serif is seen as the more aesthetically
pleasing.
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| To better understand what serifs are click this image. |
