[IxDA Discuss] Arial vs Vernada?

[Andrei Herasimchuk]

On Jan 7, 2008, at 2:16 PM, Callie Neylan wrote:

> Not true. Sometimes you do refer to type readability studies. Like  
> when you're designing typefaces for highway signs. And for people  
> with visual impairments.

The highway sign is an example of validation, not in using a study to  
literally *choose* the font itself. That's an important distinction.  
In other words, the testing done on the highway signs was *very  
specific* to the font designed, and tested to make sure it satisfied  
the requirement of legibility at distances, in fog, in rain, with  
headlights hitting it, fast speeds, etc. That's vastly different than  
using a study to determine what font you should use for a web site.

Typographers spend a massive amount of time testing the legibility of  
their work. It's built into their DNA and their process of work. In  
that regard, they are doing that to validate their design for its  
intended purpose. But what they don't do is what is done in that  
linked study, which is a backwards way of testing "font usefulness."

-- 
Andrei Herasimchuk

Principal, Involution Studios
innovating the digital world

e. andrei at involutionstudios.com
c. +1 408 306 6422