The Legibility of Cleartype Fonts

Barbara S. Chaparro; A. Dawn Shaikh; Alex Chaparro

The Legibility of Cleartype Fonts

Barbara S. Chaparro, A. Dawn Shaikh, Alex Chaparro

Wichita State University

Research output: Contribution to conference › Presentation

Abstract

This article introduces six new ClearType fonts (Cambria, Constantia, Corbel, Candara, Calibri, and Consolas) developed by Microsoft. Legibility of the font lowercase letters, digits, and symbols was compared to two traditional fonts, Times New Roman and Verdana. Results show that the legibility, as measured by the number of correct identifications of briefly presented characters, was highest for the new fonts Consolas and Cambria, and lowest for Candara and Corbel. Old style numerals, such as 0,1, and 2, used in Constantia, Candara, and Corbel resulted in confusion with the letters o, l, and z. Several symbols in Times New Roman were confused with both letters and other symbols.

Original language	American English
State	Published - Oct 2006
Externally published	Yes
Event	50th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society - San Francisco, CA Duration: Oct 1 2006 → …

Conference

Conference	50th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
Period	10/1/06 → …

Keywords

type fonts
web fonts
Microsoft fonts
font clarity

Disciplines

Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces
Cognition and Perception

Cite this

@conference{872f0e03a68d48c3be73760a91d2ede8,

title = "The Legibility of Cleartype Fonts",

abstract = " This article introduces six new ClearType fonts (Cambria, Constantia, Corbel, Candara, Calibri, and Consolas) developed by Microsoft. Legibility of the font lowercase letters, digits, and symbols was compared to two traditional fonts, Times New Roman and Verdana. Results show that the legibility, as measured by the number of correct identifications of briefly presented characters, was highest for the new fonts Consolas and Cambria, and lowest for Candara and Corbel. Old style numerals, such as 0,1, and 2, used in Constantia, Candara, and Corbel resulted in confusion with the letters o, l, and z. Several symbols in Times New Roman were confused with both letters and other symbols. ",

keywords = "type fonts, web fonts, Microsoft fonts, font clarity",

author = "Chaparro, {Barbara S.} and Shaikh, {A. Dawn} and Alex Chaparro",

year = "2006",

month = oct,

language = "American English",

note = "50th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ; Conference date: 01-10-2006",

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TY - CONF

T1 - The Legibility of Cleartype Fonts

AU - Chaparro, Barbara S.

AU - Shaikh, A. Dawn

AU - Chaparro, Alex

PY - 2006/10

Y1 - 2006/10

N2 - This article introduces six new ClearType fonts (Cambria, Constantia, Corbel, Candara, Calibri, and Consolas) developed by Microsoft. Legibility of the font lowercase letters, digits, and symbols was compared to two traditional fonts, Times New Roman and Verdana. Results show that the legibility, as measured by the number of correct identifications of briefly presented characters, was highest for the new fonts Consolas and Cambria, and lowest for Candara and Corbel. Old style numerals, such as 0,1, and 2, used in Constantia, Candara, and Corbel resulted in confusion with the letters o, l, and z. Several symbols in Times New Roman were confused with both letters and other symbols.

AB - This article introduces six new ClearType fonts (Cambria, Constantia, Corbel, Candara, Calibri, and Consolas) developed by Microsoft. Legibility of the font lowercase letters, digits, and symbols was compared to two traditional fonts, Times New Roman and Verdana. Results show that the legibility, as measured by the number of correct identifications of briefly presented characters, was highest for the new fonts Consolas and Cambria, and lowest for Candara and Corbel. Old style numerals, such as 0,1, and 2, used in Constantia, Candara, and Corbel resulted in confusion with the letters o, l, and z. Several symbols in Times New Roman were confused with both letters and other symbols.

KW - type fonts

KW - web fonts

KW - Microsoft fonts

KW - font clarity

M3 - Presentation

T2 - 50th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society

Y2 - 1 October 2006

ER -