Chapter four discusses the importance of readability, or
legibility, in typography and design. The book states that designers tend to
overlook and neglect the importance of legibility. The book focuses on three
main qualities to look at when determining a piece of typography’s legibility:
contrast, simplicity, and proportion. The book references Garamond,
Bakersville, and Bodoni as prime examples of typefaces that have all of these
qualities, and thus, high legibility. The rest of the chapter examines the importance
of typographic aspects such as differentiation between specific letterforms,
capitals vs. lowercase letters, spacing, size, weight, obliqueness, and color.
After this discussion, the book further delves into how page format alters
legibility and also making digital type especially legible for readers. The
chapter’s layout is very straightforward and linear in its analysis of
legibility in typography.
Have you ever heard of or tried to read copy where the first
and last letters of each word stay the same but all the interior letters are
scrambled? Srot of lkie tihs emalxpe
hree? It’s amazing, but the reader can still understand what the words are.
I thought about this a lot while reading this chapter. I mean, if humans are
able to read complete nonsense as long as the words are the correct length and
they begin and end with the correct letters, shouldn’t we be able to understand
most typefaces? Don’t get me wrong; I understand that legibility is especially
important in “non-design” situations, such as emergency signs or text in a
book. However, I don’t necessarily buy into the idea that legibility is as
important when creating something that is more about design. I sometimes think
that people can underestimate the perceptual power that “non-designer or
creative types” naturally possess. I think it’s important that designers don’t “dumb
down” what they’re doing for the general public because they are a lot smarter
(creatively) than we sometimes think they are.
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