Skimming electronic newspaper headlines: A study of typeface, point size, screen resolution, and monitor size
Academic Article
Overview
Identity
Additional Document Info
Other
View All
Overview
abstract
The effects of typeface, point size, screen resolution and monitor size on legibility were studied in a task-setting similar to skimming headlines in an electronic newspaper. Times New Roman, Book Antiqua, Century Gothic, and Arial were the four typefaces used in the study. The point sizes used to present the headlines were 14 point, 20 point, and 24 point sizes. Two resolutions, 640 480 pixels and 1024 768 pixels, were used in the study on two different monitor sizes-14 (0.28 mm dot-pitch) and 19 (0.31 mm dot-pitch). All the headlines used in the study averaged 6 words in length with an average pixel width of 410 pixels when displayed at a logical dots-per-inch of 96 dpi under Microsoft Windows. The headlines were shown to 28 subjects using a brief-exposure method. The results indicate the existence of interactions between all factors considered in this study. The results of further investigation into the simple interaction effects of typeface X point size as well as the simple, simple main effects of typeface are presented for the 14 monitor. The best over all legibility was achieved by the Times New Roman and Anal typefaces. These two typefaces represent a serif and a sans-serif typeface tuned specifically for the display of text on a computer screen. 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.
