Re: Font Selection Methodology

[Kevin Kirton <kevin -at- k-tecs -dot- co -dot- jp>]

(About David Ogilvy's advocacy of serif fonts) Dick Margulis wrote:

> He was merely promulogating a popular myth. There has never been a
> scientific study of this question. There have been many studies that
> purported to be scientific, but, from first principles, such a study is
> impossible to design; so it follows that no such study has been done.

I'm not sure I understand why this would be impossible to test scientifically.

It's interesting though how ingrained this myth seems to be. To quote from
GATF's Encylopedia of Graphic Communications (1998), p. 710:
Serif characters tend to be easier to read, as they provide a horizontal 
guideline for the eye to "tie" the letters of a word together. It is 
generally better to use serif faces (rather than sans serif faces) when 
typesetting long stretches of copy, such as books with few illustrations, 
since serif faces cause less fatigue of the eyes. According to one study, 
there is reader preference for, and better legibiliy of, serif faces.

FWIW

Kevin Kirton
Kyoto, Japan




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