The Best Fonts, According to Science
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День томуWe all know our favorite fonts, but did you ever think about why some fonts are just clearer than others? Well there's a surprising amount of research into just what makes certain fonts better, and there's a case to be made for that loveably goofy Comic Sans.
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Sources:
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www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
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Image Sources:
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@harvest5218 2 місяці тому
Comic Sans is a wonderful way to figure out who likes to hate stuff for no reason.
@MammothBehemoth 2 місяці тому
I had a friend who hated pineapples on pizza so much he ordered 4 boxes of all meat combos, when everybody in the group openly said they wanted at least one with pineapples. He also hated comic sans and he had to finish all 4 boxes by himself
@dangerfly 2 місяці тому
Well, do you LIKE things for no reason? Why do you like symmetry? There's always a reason for EVERYTHING.
@eris9062 2 місяці тому
I just think it looks kind of stupid, like it has its place, but then again I’m also a sucker for serifs
@gravity00x 2 місяці тому
its not for no reason, its because its either inapropriate to the subject, or because of the rather unappealing design. u dont wear a clown costume to a funeral either.
@CortexNewsService 2 місяці тому
I feel like I can now admit that I like comic sans.
@kirkrowe2901 2 місяці тому
It's not just 'more space' between letters in Courier, it's a monospaced font, meaning every letter and space is the same width on every character. Very handy for coding!
@JeffKaylin-ft5cx 2 місяці тому
And some of us grew up on typewriters. Courier is more readable to me than Lucida Console, but I don't trust Courier to be absolutely monospaced. Should I learn to trust?
@kirkrowe2901 2 місяці тому
@@JeffKaylin-ft5cx At least in Notepad++, I never encountered a character that didn't fit the grid that monospace makes. Everything always lines up nice.
@EduardQualls 2 місяці тому
Except that 1's (one) and l's (lower case 'L'), and 0's (zero) and 'O' (uppercase 'o') are often too similar, and at some point-sizes, even indistinguishable. For coding, it's better to use a monospace font (like Consolas) that was designed specifically to avoid those confusing conditions.
@JaneNewAuthor 2 місяці тому
Courier is used for scripts too.
@KBRoller 2 місяці тому
Consolas is the default (and also monospaced) font for VSCode, and it's served me well.
@kiomopo 2 місяці тому
i have a comic sans tattoo which reads "memento mori" sometimes i cover most of it so it just reads "meme"
@world_still_spins 2 місяці тому
Vala.
@starrywizdom 2 місяці тому
I think you would be fun to hang out with.
@corpsehandler5321 2 місяці тому
oh hohohoho, you've given me ideas
@LurpakSpreadableButter 2 місяці тому
Memento Mori, UNUS ANNUS
@KBRoller 2 місяці тому
"Remember that you will type."
@pumpkinghead15 2 місяці тому
My favorite font is Verdana for the simple fact that it's a sans serif font in which the capital I and lowercase L are actually DISTINCT from each other.
@alexandred.4248 2 місяці тому
Try Consolas, the added plus is that it's monospaced
@batintheattic7293 2 місяці тому
Ah... Comic Sans was my first love. It's Verdana I married, though.
@jaylewis9876 21 день тому
Verdana is definitely under appreciated
@second0banana 5 днів тому
This is my biggest beef with most san serif fonts! It was a genuine factor when we were considering the name Iona for a kid. (It just looks like lower case Lona in a lot of fonts which bugs me an unreasonable amount.)
@thomascastleman314 2 місяці тому
As a programmer, Courier is the bomb. Some characters (like l and I, or O and 0) look VERY similar in certain fonts. Courier and other Serif fonts make these letters easier to tell apart, which is very important when debugging code. Courier is even fixed-width so it helps with eyeballing indentation and line length.
@clickrick 2 місяці тому
There are more modern monospaced fonts, such as Lucida Console, Consolas, and Cascadia Code. I'll not express my preferences between them, but they're definitely geared towards programmers.
@borttorbbq2556 2 місяці тому
Love courier new honestly got so many f's because I hate using Arial and time new Roman. For myself parchment is my favorite
@hibryd7481 2 місяці тому
You may want to check out Akkurat-Mono; I've programmed in a good many fonts and color schemes and I find Akkurat-Mono and Solarized Dark to be my overall favorites, respectively. There's many glyphs in Akkurat that I like feel are a little cleaner than Courier, like r, q, ?, etc.
@FlesHBoX 2 місяці тому
Personally, I really prefer Fira Code for programming. It's free, configurable, and supports ligatures.
@caesarxinsanium4008 2 місяці тому
Iosevka gang
@mariaraposabranca7062 2 місяці тому
Tip for writers: whenever you get tired, swap your document's font to Comic Sans (or another radically different font, but comic sans is just strikingly different than most). You'll recover some stamina and notice more mistakes to correct!
@Sujowi 2 місяці тому
Thanks for that! Xx proofreader!
@KBRoller 2 місяці тому
Is one of those mistakes that you're now using Comic Sans? 😁I kid, I kid.
@mariaraposabranca7062 2 місяці тому
@@KBRoller I'm an ESL and I was in bed.... :(
@ravioliis_ 2 місяці тому
I absolutely adore comic sans. It's super readable for dyslexic people, ESL learners, people who have trouble focusing, etc, etc. Also, it just has a super fun, loose personality to it. Whenever I would have to type anything for school, I learned that typing it up first in comic sans helped me get my thoughts out of my head quicker and easier.
@MinurielLai 2 місяці тому
Same to that last part - I find that using a font like Times New Roman when trying to write a first draft is much slower than using some kind of silly handwriting font. It's almost like my brain thinks "no one could ever take my report seriously in that font" and lowers the expectations xD
@ryanap8396 2 місяці тому
It’s great for people with dyslexia
@who9387 2 місяці тому
@ravioliis_ _ I really don't get the anti Comic Sans thing. It's the most friendly-looking and READABLE font there is. What is not to like ?
@tultrapfighter 2 місяці тому
@@who9387 it's because it used be used *everywhere* by inexperienced designers. You could see comic sans in business settings, or even at funerals. The silly look is very off-putting in that context.
@who9387 2 місяці тому
@@tultrapfighter Yes it's not a businesslike font and that's why I like it for emails etc between friends, I'm now retired so have no bisiness communication, to me it's PERFEC for wha tI need, friendly and HIGHLY READABLE
@neenajaydon9641 2 місяці тому
As a graphic design student, I was happy to see this topic covered. I don’t know if I will ever have a default font again because the suitability of a font depends on the situation, and I spend a lot of time discovering new fonts I like.
@c.augustin 2 місяці тому
Read the Vignelli Canon (available as a PDF for free), if not done already. He has a point (or two) … ;-) Oh, and preference changes with age (and who are your "heroes" in typography).
@animeartist888 2 місяці тому
I used to specifically and intentionally make every text document I started in a different font depending on what it was. Funny silly little story I'm sharing with a friend? Comic Sans or Kristen ITC. Diary entry? Handwriting font of some sort, maybe changing the specific one per day depending on mood. Notes for myself to reference later? The default Arial is fine. And if a specific word needed extra emphasis, I'd make it a different font so it would stand out i.e. in a document with a handwriting font, I'd use chiller to say I was SCARED. I also wrote a screenplay for school where I used different fonts for each character, the narrator, and the scene-setting bits that aren't supposed to be spoken aloud. I've always loved playing around with fonts! Except wingdings and similar symbol-based ones though. Those... kinda take away the point of writing anything down, yanno?
@alexandred.4248 2 місяці тому
If it was up to me, Consolas, just everywhere for everything (which is what I do on my browser)
@OlgaAndreyeva 2 місяці тому
i had a hard time picking a font for my personal 'branding' ended up going with old garamond just bc i like how it makes the g in Olga look :) the rest of the body text i used din, cause i like the mix of old school and new high tech
@AdrianHereToHelp 2 місяці тому
An example of a font specifically developed for people with low vision is Atkinson Hyperlegible, which was made by the Braille Institute. It's a really cool font, and tries to make sure letter differentiation is as easy as possible without making the whole thing look like a ransom note.
@LendriMujina 2 місяці тому
That's one I tend to default to. It's a pretty "invisible", "neutral" font that doesn't draw attention to itself while still being extra readable.
@NatSparky 2 місяці тому
I've been scrolling through the comments for someone who would bring this up! It's SUCH a great good font! It's extremely readable. The designer worked with the Braille Institute to develop a font that looked beautiful but that also could distinguish between lowercase L and uppercase i, the number 0 and the uppercase O and uppercase Q, and the uppercase B and number 8.
@leave-a-comment-at-the-door 2 місяці тому
as a programmer, something I've strongly felt is needed is a Atkinson Hyperlegible that's monospace; I feel it would make everything so nice if I could have a variable width font as a default in the OS but still be able to use the same font when coding where being ablet to line things up vertically is very useful.
@AdrianHereToHelp 2 місяці тому
@@leave-a-comment-at-the-door There are a few fan-made monospace conversions, like eHyperlegible and Atkinson Monolegible, if you want to try those
@jonyeawright 2 місяці тому
You used the word kerning to describe letter spacing. Kerning affects letter spacing but is not the same thing. You also neglected to mention that Courier is a fixed pitch font. It was invented for the typewriter. With fixed pitch fonts every character has the same width which means fewer characters can fit on a line. On a screen where space may be limited, fewer character will fit. In book printing this results in more pages and costs.
@animeartist888 2 місяці тому
Yeah, for larger blocks of text, I absolutely hate Courier. It's the best for coding, though!
@PaddyWolfe 2 місяці тому
The Interdisciplinary Journal of Signage and Wayfinding... i had no idea this was a thing.
@robinharwood5044 2 місяці тому
I felt an immediate urge to subscribe.
@WildFyreful 2 місяці тому
Fonts come up quite a bit in the accessibilty community, mainly around which is the most accessible for people with vision problems. So, so glad to see you cover this topic!
@luizotavio2116 2 місяці тому
I unironically use comic sans (or knockoff versions of it) on all my devices, because it truly helps me distinguish between I and l.
@FeeshUnofficial 2 місяці тому
Why... Why would you use a knockoff... It's literally an open source, public domain, web standard font
@TanninValerian 2 місяці тому
@@FeeshUnofficial I've seen quite a few devices/programs that don't support what you think would be a standard font, so a knock off would be necessary.
@CorgiTheRegularCorgi17 2 місяці тому
That’s why I started using Times New Roman, it makes it so much easier.
@MarsJenkar 2 місяці тому
I use Tahoma as my default for similar reasons.
@MaxGengar 2 місяці тому
That's what I always thought with I and l
@samwisegamgee6532 2 місяці тому
From Europe the most strange is the fact that fonts were tested for security road signs. In Europe as in many other part of the world, road signs are mainly using shapes, colors and ideograms and very few text except when there is no other choice. Because recognizing shapes, colors and simple images is far less brain consuming and easier to understand for people unable to read easily for any reason. And even if I don’t have any precise references that I can remember, I’m pretty sure it has been established by studies.
@madelinemcdonald2609 2 місяці тому
This is true in the US too (that most signs are shapes and color-coded). It’s just signs telling you about cities/road names/etc that are words (for the most part)
@GonzoTehGreat 2 місяці тому
I think the video refers to DESTINATION signs, which need wording.
@jurjenbos228 2 місяці тому
@@madelinemcdonald2609 That's not true. Europeans driving in the US are flabbergasted by the black text on yellow background signs that contain important information like "yield".
@vanaals 2 місяці тому
Fonts are my life. I suffered severe interest in fonts when first studying commercial art in college. That segued into further exploration working as a layout artist for a manufacturer of marine gauges and instrument panels. And, during all the in-between times, there was experimentation when designing posters and programs for the entertainment industry. (There was serious thought behind which to use for reading in dim light, when sitting in a seat in a theater.)
@carloguerrero6583 2 місяці тому
My condolences. But "Suffered severe interest in fonts" is a dope villain origin and i also welcome my noble font overlord
@am2dan 2 місяці тому
As a Russian learner, it's sometimes hard to distinguish between Cyrillic п and л in certain sans serif fonts. That little hook on the latter is very important, and it's usually more obvious in serif fonts. But for native-level readers it might not matter so much since it's known that you learn to recognize the shape of entire words rather than reading them letter by letter.
@elliottgussow9555 2 місяці тому
Comic Sans is the best because there are differences between upper case "I", lower case "L" and number "1"; also between number "0", and upper case "O".
@Just_A_Dude 2 місяці тому
Yeah, but so does Consolas.
@Ptaaruonn 2 місяці тому
Thank you! fonts where there is no difference between capital i's and lower case L's are BS.
@Joao-pl6db 2 місяці тому
You are missing the wonders of Monospace fonts.
@pboplatypus 2 місяці тому
And in comic sans, lowercase "A" is an easy to read "one story" a. No weird extra curved line.
@mcv2178 2 місяці тому
My first (manual) typewriter had no number 1 key - you had to use lowercase L.
@michaelwright2986 2 місяці тому
It was really useful to hear that spacing is a major factor in readability across different font styles. Times New Roman is the most common serif font, but it was specifically designed to get the most letters in the smallest space, so it's not an especially good test of the readability of serif fonts. Its ubiquity is a result of commercial choices. About thirty years ago, I composed a guide to learning a language directed at strictly monolingual students; so, it had to introduce a lot of new concepts, as well as the detail of the language. I was printing out a draft, and someone came in and asked what it was. I explained, and added (with a tone of voice that I thought was evidently cynical) "And I've set it in Comic Sans, so it will be easier to understand." "Good idea," they said. So I left it in Comic Sans, rather than changing it to Garamond.
@4RILDIGITAL 2 місяці тому
Never knew fonts could impact so much more than just aesthetics. Definitely going to be more conscious about the fonts I use in the future.
@squirrel5809 2 місяці тому
I continue to love and admire this channel for communicating nuance accessibly
@Angrynood 2 місяці тому
I always believed in Comic Sans being the most iconic and best font. Glad to feel validated by science.
@janedoe3043 2 місяці тому
I love Comic Sans, unironically. It's bold, easy to read and a little goofy. The absurdist nature is great.
@GroovingPict 2 місяці тому
The more important distinciton when it comes to road signs is ALL CAPS vs Mixed Case, and actually Mixed Case is vastly more readable at a glance (like when looking at a road sign quickly) than ALL CAPS is.
@Codeexcited 2 місяці тому
I think for things like STOP(aka expected and consultant) all caps is better, but for anything that is unexpected and you have to parse on the go mixed case is better
@nandam3779 2 місяці тому
I have ADHD, not dyslexia, but I often have trouble keeping my eyes on the page. For me, monospaced fonts like Courier keep my attention better, but Comic Sans is also high on the list, and yes, it pains me to say that because I have some experience in graphic design. I also tend to switch fonts often while writing drafts because it helps me catch typos.
@THE_GREMLINZ_OFFICIAL 2 місяці тому
Monospaced comic sans
@Tyrandir 2 місяці тому
This is really helpful, as someone with optic nerve damage. I came in to learn random interesting things and wound up with really applicable info for me, so thank you Scishow ❤
@SpoopySoup 2 місяці тому
including courier, i just find most monospaced fonts easier to read in general, and if you want text thats heavily formatted like in a programming setting, it's pretty important to have it all lined up too
@makeupbyushna3085 2 місяці тому
This video is very relaxing and fun, thankyou!
@KitsukiiPlays 2 місяці тому
I love Open Dyslexic. I don’t have dyslexia but I have TDAH and reading, even if I love to, it’s super hard After changing the font in my kindle, I finally stop abandoning books in mid reading, because it’s not an exhausting activity anymore! One aspect these studies didn’t took in consideration is that not everything is about velocity or speed. Quality of life also matters
@conlon4332 2 місяці тому
I've really never understood what's not to like about Comic Sans.
@109Rage 2 місяці тому
I've been using Comic Code for my text editors and such. It's basically a Comic Sans styled font with monospace, so its letters have the distinctiveness of Comic Sans, while having the spacing of fonts like Courier.
@atish365 2 місяці тому
Great job editing team
@gegok42 2 місяці тому
Fantastic video, thank you so much!
@christopherables4235 2 місяці тому
I fell in love with Comic Sans the first time I saw it - it looks natural rather than harsh, is very easy to read, and I feel more like myself when using it. Most other fonts somehow make me feel artificial, less human.
@jkfecke 2 місяці тому
Comic Sans is only hated because it appeared in one too many serious communications. But every font has its place, except for Papyrus.
@russellstyles5381 2 місяці тому
You need a serif font for anything that may contain random data. In Arial, some letters look a lot alike.
@skollrum 2 місяці тому
My favorite fonts is the guy from Hapoy Days. He is so cool.
@KenSnyder1 2 місяці тому
It bothered me way too much that he says "Comic Sans" yet pronounces sans serif as "saahns serif"
@anujshah9335 Місяць тому
🤯
@BrandEver117 2 місяці тому
The best font is obviously Papyrus
@skeletini9836 2 місяці тому
i’m an elementary school teacher and while i do use comic sans occasionally, on a screen/projector, we use a slightly thinner version of a sans serif font that is also slightly curvy and stylistic. we want it to mimic our hand writing, but comic sans is usually too thick for the size font we use and the amount of words. in a second grade classroom, they are reading paragraphs on the projector, so thinner letters allows more space and for their eyes to easily glide through the words up close. the spacing is also important, more spacing between letters and words helps young readers as well. in my opinion, early readers need predictable fonts. there is a common font used in G1 books (beginning reading level books) where it doesn’t put the hook at the end of j and every student is always so confused because it looks like a long i. i can’t figure out why they do that and why we have to use them.
@670839245 2 місяці тому
There are things other than font that affect readability. More than once I've read academic papers that break up a long word at the end of a line with a hyphen and continue on a new line, and that makes the text much harder to read. I guess the editors just wanted the right edge of the page to be not too jagged.
@christopherkirkland7174 2 місяці тому
Some people get wrong the answer to "Should it look nice or be easy to read?" Left justified for anything I produce and hanging indent for my own notes. It is time to forget the mechanical typewriter rules.
@358itachi 2 місяці тому
SciShow again coming through with the question I never asked, but needed the answers to. I usually prefer TNR in word, but Arial for presentations.
@sheldonaubut 2 місяці тому
Until recently, I owned a Web design company, designing my first Website in 1994. Over the years, I've taken tons of grief for my preference for Times New Roman and in recent years Comic Sans. Some from customers and some from the Website visitors. People were so vocal they pretty much screamed at me. My thought was that it wasn't about how pretty a font was, but rather the transfer of information, and that explanation did work at times. But there really are a whole group of people that fancy themselves the font police.
@jerelull9629 2 місяці тому
I still am a guy who leaves sans serif for headlines and serif fonts like Palatino for the text. I *might* use Comic Sans for a joke headline, but not for as many as 100 words. I could be convinced if I got into texting to friends regularly. I used to have a very funny "old West" font for that sort of thing, but I haven't seen it for about 15 years, now.
@Tymbus 2 місяці тому
I've always used courier. I like the way it harks back to old fashioned hand typing. I love its clarity and simplicity. And I love the feel of white space between and within letters. I also like Helvetica for headlines in copy. In contrast, Times New Roman and Ariel feel fussy and crowded.
@PLuMUK54 2 місяці тому
During my teaching career, I dealt with a number of pupils who spoke little to no English (the school was near a university where there were a lot of foreign graduate students who brought their families with them). I discovered, through trial and error, that pupils whose native alphabet was different, such as Korean, Japanese, Arabic, and so on, made better progress if I used Comic Sans. I wondered if this was because as they learned to write in English, it was easier for them to make an approximation of Comic Sans shapes compared to other fonts. Pupils whose native alphabet was the same seemed to make better progress with other sans serif fonts, ie not Comic Sans, but less with serif fonts.
@LarryGarfieldCrell 2 місяці тому
Courier is a fixed width font. That's why its spacing is so easy. It's also why it's the most common font for programmers editing code. (Like me.)
@GeorgeWiman 2 місяці тому
I often switch a document to courier or comic sans while editing, then back to whatever the font snobs like when I'm done.
@tavdy79 2 місяці тому
Many authors I know (and I know a LOT of authors) use Comic Sans for writing first drafts, because they hit word-count milestones more quickly and are less prone to writer's block. I've tried it, and it does work - but I have no idea why!
@videokid521 2 місяці тому
I put everything I do into comic sans, for myself, for my early childhood age students and most important, for my husband after a stroke completely took his ability to read and recognize letters. This is significant because every font was ground zero, he could not make out the letters, especially the serif fonts. Block print was readable in all caps, but again lower case was hard for him. Most of his reading practice now is street signs(his choice), and thanks, now I get it, it's got to be the additional spacing. Even moving, he can read signs better than a television screen.
@annefoley6950 2 місяці тому
I wasn't really paying attention for the first half, but then I remembered that I do have a wide choice of fonts to use in communicating information. I also happen to be huge fan of my typewriter, (for quickly typing small labels,) which just so happens to tap out letters in good old Courier! That's a win for me!
@elisabetk2595 2 місяці тому
After a brain bleed a few years ago I had a subtle nystagmus (a sort of shaking in your eyes) that made reading sans-serif fonts way more difficult. With serif I could rely more on the shape of the whole word. Ariel was the very worst; it was about a year before I could comfortably read more than a few words at a time.
@halem6580 2 місяці тому
My brothers went to a school specifically for dyslexic kids that had it's own proprietary font, also designed specifically for dyslexia. I'd be interested to see how it would hold up in studies like these
@lakrids-pibe 2 місяці тому
The industry standard font for road signs has been *Dansk Vejtavleskrift,* based on the british font *Transport,* since the 1960's. In Denmark.
@Lolalogo 2 місяці тому
At work, I always know the research is going to be fire if the slideshow is in comic sans.
@Fasteroid 2 місяці тому
I argued with my English teachers in high school AND college that Times New Roman should never have been made the standard for research papers due to its thin strokes being harder to read at 12pt than most other choices. My concerns were always dismissed because "serif fonts are easier to read" and I was sometimes threatened with point deductions if I deviated from it. I'm glad there's now research out there that shows ultimately that it never mattered. I get to have the last laugh.
@OlgaAndreyeva 2 місяці тому
spacing is a great point. i didnt know it had that much impact. when coding, most ide programs use monospace fonts, which makes sense. i learned about comic sans being good for dyslexia a while back, definitely helped ease the hatred haha it's kind of a endearing underdog to me now. i'm not dislexic but i find reading sometimes difficult to focus on, i tried the open dyslexic fonts and didnt feel a difference, glad i'm not the only one lol i know theres plug ins and stuff you can switch everything to comic sans, maybe after watching this video i'll be able to bring myself to give it a try xD
@wasd____ 2 місяці тому
Courier is not only a wider font, it's also a monospace font (every letter takes exactly the same amount of width). This gives it a precisely fixed visual cadence, which makes it easier to read for some people with bad vision because every fixed amount of space is exactly one letter. There's no guessing and confusion about whether the letter you're trying to read at any given position is just one wide letter, or two thin letters blurring together, etc., and taking out the spacing and character count guesswork is a huge workload reduction (which translates to much better reading speed and accuracy) for anyone with less than perfect vision.
@sailiealquadacil1284 2 місяці тому
I'll try out the thing about spacing tomorrow at work. Am currently working on the layout for a publication, and my colleague said that it was a bit difficult to read. We already increased the space in between lines.
@opsatr 2 місяці тому
9:00 Up until this point, I've been thinking, well one of my favorites to use is Courier. It's like a typewriter font. By that I mean the spacing is very uniform. So I'm glad it's finally mentioned.
@absalomdraconis 2 місяці тому
Courier is also a _slab serif_ font, meaning that it's lines never turn skinny, and instead are always thick. This produces that consistent width that one of the studies mentions.
@cheeseparis1 2 місяці тому
I had a very hard time in the 2000's - this Powerpoint bug (at least in the French edition) adding a space _before_ apostrophes. It was fixed a few releases later - and ALL business presentations were written in Comic Sans. Dude! Found a way to search/replace fonts, its was impossible to focus on that.
@ronaldroe4548 2 місяці тому
Courier is a fixed width font. It's not just the spacing, but all the letters take the same space. I'm curious if that enters into the equation for readability. OAN, if you want to turn in a paper that isn't quite long enough, most people can't tell the difference between Georgia and Times New Roman, but Georgia is *much* wider, so it takes up more space
@jackhannold8247 2 місяці тому
Yes, Georgia will fill the page with fewer words, and for two reasons. First, there’s a little more space between the letters; and second, it has a greater “x height” (the height of the “small” letters a, c, e, i, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x and z), and all the lower case letters-including the ascenders (b, d, f. h, k and l) and the descenders (g, j, p, q and y)-are wider in proportion to the x height. (The letter t is not a full-height ascender, as the word “little” illustrates.) Another thing in Georgia’s favor is that there’s a little less contrast between thick and thin strokes, with the thick strokes being about equal to those of Times New Roman, while the thin strokes are a little heavier. But don’t think no one will notice the use of Georgia instead of Times New Roman in a term paper, because there’s one glaring difference: Georgia has old style figures (sometimes called “text figures”), with the 0, 1 and 2 only slightly taller than x height, and with as 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9 as descenders and 6 and 8 as ascenders. Personally, I think that old style figures look out of place in modern fonts like Georgia, and that’s my only quibble with what I think is otherwise an excellent font.
@arjc5714 2 місяці тому
I recently got a pdf editor software that I’ve been using nonstop to OCR old academic articles (turn text images into clickable text) so that I can listen to them with TTS instead of reading them. The OCR software actually lets you look at “suspect” letter that it isn’t sure about. The font in the application itself doesn’t distinguish between I, l, and |. (That’s capital i, lowercase L, and a vertical bar). Meaning that if I want it to be correct then I have to manually type those letters. With no way of knowing if the program was right in the first place. (It also reads all en-dashes as the logical negation symbol, so I have to find-and-replace that every time, or my TTS program will start telling me about inNEGATIONteresting words that are split across lines. 😭)
@Janokins 2 місяці тому
Huh, I specifically heard the opposite about all caps, when they were doing the signs in Britain, they found that it was easier for people to recognise the shape of the word, and thus read it easier, when it was in lower case.
@allanrichardson1468 2 місяці тому
In the IT world (and with all the security on apps and web sites, we are all involved in IT), codes and passwords that involve mixtures of letters and numbers MUST distinguish the letter I from the number 1, the letter O from the number 0, and the upper case I from the lower case L. Otherwise, codes and passwords will be entered incorrectly. And even for normal text, letters too close together, especially at small sizes. Aerial, for example, fails some of the tests in the previous paragraphs, but in addition, lower case R blends in with a following lower case M, N, or another R to make a jumble, a lower case M, or a lower case NR. This is especially true with bold type. When I receive a display of a code to be entered, I often use Ctrl+c, open a Notepad (which by default uses a monotype serif font) window, and Ctrl+v to be sure I’m reading it right.
@madmcomber752 2 місяці тому
As a writer and a font nerd, this video had me super excited. I like Centaur the best myself.
@flashboogey 2 місяці тому
As someone with dyslexia I would really appreciate more stuff you use the special dyslexic font
@hiimcrazyfordrwho 2 місяці тому
I love the special dyslexia font. It helps to ground letters through my visual snow. It allows me to read paragraphs.
@orsettomorbido 2 місяці тому
Fascinating!
@keithruby3436 2 місяці тому
I frequently use comic sans or courier on forms. It is easy to read and differentiates the regular text from the fill in text.
@MrKotBonifacy 2 місяці тому
1. Sans-serifs are generally more legible, because their shapes are "clearer". And for the same reason texts set in uppercase are easier to read than mixed case texts. And that's why uppercase letters are used for signs and headlines - because those are things one is supposed to "get at a glance". 2. HOWEVER, serif fonts make it easier for our eyes to group letters into words, and follow the line of text. Also, they makes easier for us to visually "keep apart" individual lines from each other - and that's why they are used for body of a text in books or newspapers - where one has to "scan" a page/ column LINE AFTER LINE, top to bottom. 3. "No significant difference" - I guess those two qualities of serif and sans serif fonts sorta "cancel out" each other. A body of a text printed in, say, Gil Sans is very clear - I mean, the typeface is clear and its letters are easier to read (distinguish) than those of Times (for instance), but then Times makes it easier to follow the line of text. Also, it's ALWAYS easier for us to read fonts "that we are used to" - for instance, for majority of people outside of Germany "Schwabacher" font is next to unreadable, and considering that we all are exposed daily, multiple times, to Helvetica/ Ariel and "Times/ ~ New Roman" it's no wonder they are very readable. 4. The "age difference" ( _"75 yrs olds took 38% longer to read the screen..."_ ) - you're jumping to conclusions, my dear Watson. The main reason for slower reading dashboard screens by older folks, WHILE DRIVING, is the problem with shifting the focus - when you get older your eyes need MUCH MORE time to adjust the focus from "(nearly) infinity" to "very close up". (Ask me how I know...). I can tell you that even a simple task of taking your eyes from the road in front of you and "reading" the speedometer (or a thermometer display next to it) takes a noticeable amount of time now - while 20 yrs ago it my eyes would adjust in an instant.
@JanTuts 2 місяці тому
While I was in college, a researcher there had just finished their doctorate on readable fonts, with a focus on helping people with dyslexia. The final resulting font they had designed looked like a fusion of Comic Sans and Arial.
@bongosock 2 місяці тому
Because I used to be a computer programmer, I've continued to often use mono-spaced fonts - like Courier. Not exclusively, but about 50/50.
@deninetate 2 місяці тому
Comic Sans has been my favorite font ever since I first discovered it, and I happen to be dyslexic. I realize that I looks very informal. So after I finish composing the letter, essay, or whatever, I select all and change it to arial. But after finding out that courier is more readable, I may switch from arial to that.
@bazoo513 2 місяці тому
One of nice features of Kindle is that one can easily switch fonts, type byse weight, line spacing and margins on a very paper-like screen. I periodically fiddle with all those settings, but usually settle back on default Amazon's _Bookerly_ typeface by Dalton Maag foundry, at base weight just slightly (about 10%) heavier than default, with default margins but slightly wider line spacing. I also noticed that my preferences differ somewhat between ~220 dpi 6" screen of first gen Kindle Voyage and 300 dpi 6.8" screen of PaperWhite SE. I prefer sans serif fonts for headings, and I _do_ thing that Comic Sans is best left for comics.
@alexemann 2 місяці тому
I teach young EFL students. I always use Comic Sans in my PowerPoint presentations, because it simulates handwriting. I used to use Times New Roman or Arial, but the lower level students who weren't comfortable with the alphabet would end up writing "a" exactly like a Times New Roman "a". After I started using Comic Sans, the kids started writing "a" like a normal person.
@SmoochieRoo 2 місяці тому
funnily enough I was actually expecting to hear about bolding specific letters in each word at random regarding dyslexia. surprised this wasn't mentioned.
@gravity00x 2 місяці тому
i love how you quoted the one study that couldnt find the differences vs the hundreds of studies that could find the differences 😂😂😂 well played man!
@tmanook 2 місяці тому
If you are a programmer, monospaced fonts are awesome. I love you Consolas :)
@hancocki 2 місяці тому
You guys are always a font of knowledge 😊
@ivytarablair 2 місяці тому
😭😭😭😭😭😭🤣
@yafyafyaf 2 місяці тому
I loved the italic version of Cooper Black Std and I still do today.
@assininecomment1630 2 місяці тому
I've only stumbled across this vid quite randomly - but it's very timely. Recently, I focused my teaching career (Primary) on Special Needs / Inclusion. More than ever before, I consider how - if - students can make sense of an activity or task. The visual presentation of text is a key area where barriers are often created - inadvertently or indifferently - making the process even more difficult than is normal for kids with learning difficulties or disabilities. That's part of the reason I choose 'Comic Sans' at least half the time I'm writing for students. It has the correct, contemporary 'lowercase' *a.* - with the closed body section. Suitably broad letter shape and spacing. Subtle differences in shape make it easier to distinguish similar individual letters, than with conventional angular form fonts. Oddly, Comic Sans font is _better_ than our state Education Dept's preferred font 'Q Beginners'. 🙄 (Queensland, Australia)
@DominikJaniec 2 місяці тому
as a software developer and mostly latin-letters native user, I love to use single-size letters in my code, and also fonts where 1 (one) is different from l (lower L), and from I (upper i), and from | (pipe) - so I feel like the mostly important thing is uniqueness of shape and possibility to align symbols in columns
@thaddeushamlet 2 місяці тому
I once stopped reading a book because alongside a pov switch, it changed the font from times new roman (or possibly a similar serif font) to arial.
@teresawarnke999 2 місяці тому
That's nonsensical and intolerable, WTF man💥
@Madamchief 2 місяці тому
That should be illegal 🤬
@snoopy1alpha 2 місяці тому
Besides more space between letters, Courier is also monospaced. This is very important for some applications like writing program code. I wonder how monospaced fonts would perform in those studies.
@tmutant 2 місяці тому
In the military (USAF) we used Courier. (Back in the olden days, when we were using an IBM Selectric III instead of a computer.)
@lawrl777 2 місяці тому
yeah i was gonna say, Courier is a monospace font (which means every letter has the same width)
@everybodyyogastudio212 2 місяці тому
I participated in a behavioral psych lab in college, and i ran a study to reveal whether or not the way we learn affects our learning capabilities or information retention. Results indicate no significant differences which I attributed to the prior experience in learning through different methods that college level participants had already acquired . I hypothesized there may be a significant difference in younger students ❤😊
@bazoo513 2 місяці тому
4:37 - To nitpick, one doesn't need to actually _read_ those signs - they are perfectly clear without any text. Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals (to which the US is, naturally, not a party) prescribes using only absolute minimum of text (eg. the actual speed on speed limit, but without text "speed limit" or similar); as much information as possible is conveyed by the shape, color (and light or dark background, so that color bling can also read them) and icons/pictograms.
@carlyar5281 Місяць тому
Watching this has been very insightful for me. Although I am not diagnosed with the dyslexia, I have always had difficulty with my letters, and I am an absolute terrible speller. One of my children is diagnosed with dyslexia, and the same traits as me. I have always preferred Ariel or other sans serif fonts, and have found Times new Roman to be the worst font for reading. To the point where anytime I could switch the font in document I received I would. I find it so hard to read, even worse than other fonts with serifs…. And DON’T GET ME STARTED ON ITALICS!!! I’m going to start trying out some of the fonts that have space between the letters and see what impact that has for me and my children.
@ivarhusa454 2 місяці тому
Map makers (such as myself) will sometimes use 'serif vs not' to distinguish between 'subjects'. I would use (I'm retired) sans serif fonts for road names and serif fonts for natural features such as rivers or mountains.
@kuritech 2 місяці тому
Who ever did the thumbnail deserves a bonus
@AuntyProton 2 місяці тому
As a writer with bad vision, my jam is Arial Rounded MT Bold, 10pt, but zoomed in to 125%. I write all my first drafts in that set-up and only change to Times when formatting for submissions.
@MajorMandyKitten 2 місяці тому
My go to when writing fiction is calibri (body) 11pt font. It keeps the creativity going.
@merlapittman5034 2 місяці тому
My favorite font is Tahoma. It's a nice, clean, open font that I find really like. I'm not very picky, though. As long as I've got interesting reading, I'm happy!
@blankseventydrei 2 місяці тому
i am a century gothic fan, i think it looks cleaner and classy, but I like roboto mono for programming. I thought one reason time new roman was the standard for printing, was the spacing, they can fit more on the paper than other fonts.
@CSCharlesIV 2 місяці тому
I loved Comic Sans lol. Wrote many a paper with it then changed the font to whatever the professor required after I was done.
@qdaniele97 2 місяці тому
I'm surprised none of this studies took into consideration monospaced fonts. If space between characters is so important for readability, fonts that also have characters all equally spaced from each other should perform even better. I mean, terminals used and use monospaced fonts mainly to not mess up tabulation, but graphical IDEs and text editors could use any font whatsoever: It's just that code is a thousands times more readable in Consolas than in Arial (and code is just English words with some symbols here and there).
@jo.v-c 2 місяці тому
The lore I'm familiar with is that serifs are a remnant of typesetting using movable type, when the printing process could end up with gaps and/or other quality problems w/r/t the uniformity of the ink; serifs would allow one to disambiguate what letter you were looking at when they were imperfectly reproduced. Which aligns well with the finding that macular degeneration matches well with serif fonts - in this case, it's the eye doing the reading that imperfectly reproduces the letter. Also, if you're a programmer, you know all about fixed-width fonts like Courier and likely have found yourself a particular favorite; religious wars can flare up over such choices.
@jonutsthedanklordpayton 2 місяці тому
I never knew that comic sense was officially recognized as one of the best fonts for dyslexic people. I just remember as a kid being confused why everyone hated comic sounds when it was my favorite and it was the easiest to read. And it was because the characters are all so different from each other. There's no way you can miss them.
@Gamesaucer 2 місяці тому
I'm afraid I won't be using Comic Sans anytime soon as a default font. It gives me a literal headache if I have to read entire paragraphs of it. Though for small bits of text (like speech bubbles in comics) it's entirely inoffensive, if a bit tacky. If you want to actually unlock the real power of comic sans though... turn off anti-aliasing. It just becomes 20x better from that one change alone. I'm happy you brought up dyslexia in this video, and I'm really not surprised Comic Sans scores well there. There's asymmetry in the letters just like in OpenDyslexic and Dyslexie. And even if the effects are minor, those kinds of effects do add up. Combine it with the other things that make Comic Sans suitable, and of course that makes it a top candidate. Now, this is entirely anecdotal, but I've recommended OpenDyslexic to various dyslexic friends and even used it myself as a default web font for a while, and it's been a universally positive experience. Part of me wonders whether it's less about reading _speed_ and more about reading _comfort_ (which is exactly the reason personally I dislike Comic Sans so much). At the very least, I think there are still new avenues of research to pursue there. Something else that's interesting is that dyslexia is a spectrum condition. The writing system a language uses affects how many people struggle with reading it. So it's not strange to think that font choice could have similar effects. So I also wonder how fonts like OpenDyslexic perform if your sample group is the entire population rather than just people diagnosed with dyslexia, because diagnostic criteria could be skewing the results towards testing fonts on people who have difficulty reading regardless of font, and skipping the people for whom this font might provide the greatest benefit.