READABILITY why is it so important to have readability? legibility WHAT THE SECRET OF LEGIBILITY ? TRACKING IS IT THE SAME WITH WE TRACK LOCATION? LEADING ‘LETS LEAD THE WAY’ 20 MARCH 2023 VOLUME 01 “MAKE IT EASY”
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R T HAVE YOU EVER HEARD ABOUT TYPOGRAPHY? Typography is an important part of our everyday life. We see it almost everywhere we look – on websites, street signs, food packaging, promotional posters, in the videos we watch, the books we read, and really, just everywhere. To put it simply, typography is the appearance of text. It’s one of the most important features of every composition, both in the digital and physical worlds. The type choice can make or break every design. It helps to set the mood and emotion of any text and has a huge impact on how the reader perceives it. Whether it’s on our phones, in books or on websites, we’re constantly digesting written words. From instruction booklets to shop fronts, type is all around us. We often reflect on the power of the written word, but rarely do we consider the designer’s role in emulating the tone of the word or sentence. Behind the scenes, a designer has taken the time to consider the relationship between the look of the text and what the text says. In reality, different moods, atmospheres, and even trends can be expressed simply through the type choice. But what actually is typography—and why is it so vital? In this article, we’ll lift the lid on everything you need to know about typography. We’ll start with the definition of typography, including a brief history of its origins. We’ll then address the benefits of good typography and the impact it can have on your users. Finally, we’ll look into the different elements that comprise typography, and what they all mean. WHY IS TYPOGRAPHY IMPORTANT ? Typography is so much more than just choosing beautiful fonts: it’s a vital component of user interface design. Good typography will establish a strong visual hierarchy, provide a graphic balance to the website, and set the product’s overall tone. Typography should guide and inform your users, optimize readability and accessibility, and ensure an excellent user experience. Let’s delve a little deeper into why typography is so important. Good typography could be the difference between someone staying on your website for one minute or half an hour. It’s important that your website is visually stimulating and memorable, and typography plays a huge role in this process. INTRODUCTION 2
READABILITY WHAT EXACTLY IS READABILITY ? Readability determines how easy or difficult it is to understand a piece of text. Different elements of your writing can contribute to readability, like word choice. Choosing a word that’s unfamiliar or complex when a simpler word serves the same purpose can lead to poor readability—for example, writing “perturbed” instead of “worried”. Other factors go into a text’s readability, like sentence length, sentence structure, and the average syllables per word. These combined factors help assess whether your writing is likely to be understood and avoid writing mistakes that lead to confusion. When communicating in person, the recipient of your message can interject to ask for clarification or show visual cues that something you’ve said is unclear. In writing, however, ensuring that your reader understands the message you’re communicating is more challenging. It’s easy to lose your reader in written communication without other sensory signals to rely on. Checking your writing for readability can help you communicate your message in a way that’s clear and easy to understand. Why is readability important? Readability is partly important because Google considers it a key ranking factor. This is based on human behaviour on websites. If the average person finds website content too difficult to read, they’ll click elsewhere. Google loves readability because it improves UX. Content which is easier to understand will be easier to navigate. This will encourage readers to stay on your page. Which, in turn, improves bounce rates. It is also important for search because of the rise of AI home assistants. The increase in voice search is defining how users search for information. It is making it more conversational. People are now more likely to frame their Google search as a question. This means anticipating what the questions about a topic may be. Then you can answer them within your content in a way that’s simple and easy to understand. HISTORY OF READABILITY The origins of readability go back to the nineteenth century. In an age of progress, education was no exception. Reforms meant that education was becoming more widely available. Literacy rose notably. With it came the recognition that readability was important. The average sentence length was around 26 words. A very long sentence by today’s standards. The first use of readability formulas The first effort to grade texts for different reading ages came during this time. Classrooms were getting bigger. Educators wanted to teach difficult concepts in plain language for children. Many inventions were seen through the lens of Victorian Darwinism. Readability was considered evolution. L A Sherman, an English professor, saw that sentences were getting shorter. We were learning to communicate more efficiently. He said: “No man should talk worse than he writes. No man should write better than he should talk. The oral sentence is clearest because it is the product of millions of daily efforts to be clear and strong. It represents the work of the race for thousands of years in perfecting [...] communication.” This was long before the most influential readability studies. Sherman had a “write the way you talk” philosophy. READABILITY 3
“Legibility” is based on the ease with which one letter can be told from the other.“Readability” is the ease with which the eye can absorb the message and move along the line. —J. Ben Lieberman “Types of Typefaces” (1968) IMPROVING YOUR PUBLICATION Many digital publications are simply difficult to read. It’s not always as easy as taking your existing print publication and replicating it for digital. Digital publications have their own unique considerations that are essential for improving the reader’s experience. While publishing your existing print publication may be the easiest and most affordable way to get your publication online, you won’t retain or engage your readers just by adding a zooming functionality or interactive features and keeping the same layouts. Only by focusing on your digital publication’s readability, you’ll keep your readers engaged and satisfied, which will ultimately propel your business forward. Here are some methods and tips for improving your digital publication’s readability. How is readability measured? Readability is measured by collecting key metrics relating to the text then using a specific mathematical formula or collection of formulas to calculate. This started back in 1921 when American, Edward Thorndike published a book called ‘The Teacher’s Word Book.’ His book considered how often so-called ‘difficult words’ were found in literature and was the first of its kind to apply formula to language. Other researchers soon used this formula and built upon it, considering additional factors such as average number of syllables per word, difficulty of words, frequency of words, length of sentences, variety of language used, and so on. Then they compared these results to the average grade levels of students and asked them questions to check their comprehension. This was used to develop various readability formulae. The most famous of these are perhaps the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and Flesch Reading Ease formulae, which considers the number of syllables per 100 words and the average number of words per sentence. These are the formulae widely used in software such as Microsoft Word and SEO tool, YOAST. As time has gone on, linguists have conducted more and more research into readability, and the formulae have become ever more complex. READABILITY 4
WHAT EXACTLY IS READABILITY ? Readability determines how easy or difficult it is to understand a piece of text. Different elements of your writing can contribute to readability, like word choice. Choosing a word that’s unfamiliar or complex when a simpler word serves the same purpose can lead to poor readability—for example, writing “perturbed” instead of “worried”. Other factors go into a text’s readability, like sentence length, sentence structure, and the average syllables per word. These combined factors help assess whether your writing is likely to be understood and avoid writing mistakes that lead to confusion. When communicating in person, the recipient of your message can interject to ask for clarification or show visual cues that something you’ve said is unclear. In writing, however, ensuring that your reader understands the message you’re communicating is more challenging. It’s easy to lose your reader in written communication without other sensory signals to rely on. Checking your writing for readability can help you communicate your message in a way that’s clear and easy to understand. Why is readability important? Readability is partly important because Google considers it a key ranking factor. This is based on human behaviour on websites. If the average person finds website content too difficult to read, they’ll click elsewhere. Google loves readability because it improves UX. Content which is easier to understand will be easier to navigate. This will encourage readers to stay on your page. Which, in turn, improves bounce rates. It is also important for search because of the rise of AI home assistants. The increase in voice search is defining how users search for information. It is making it more conversational. People are now more likely to frame their Google search as a question. This means anticipating what the questions about a topic may be. Then you can answer them within your content in a way that’s simple and easy to understand. LEGIBILITY WHAT THE SECRET OF LEGIBILITY? Legibility describes how a typeface’s glyphs can be correctly identified as characters and words, including how individual characters can be distinguished from one another. Legibility should not be confused with readability, although legibility does affect readability. “1Il 0Oo” set in four different typefaces. Many of these characters in two typefaces on the left are indistinguishable, whereas the two examples on the right are far more legible. Some typefaces are inherently more legible than others, such as those with distinct shapes for “1,” capital “I,” and lowercase “l” (1Il); or “0”, capital “O,” and lowercase “o” (0Oo). Still, the typography of the text (for example, choices of foreground and background color, font size, weight, and tracking) will influence the legibility. Legibility is a necessary prerequisite to readability; by affecting legibility, these factors also affect the readability of any type. A typeface rendered at a very small size will not be legible or readable. Increasing the font size will eventually make it legible, but it may not make it readable. For example, people may be able to read the text, but not comfortably—such as in a dense block of legal “small print.” high legibility, such as monospaced fonts, or the typefaces used for car number plates. What Distinguishes Readability From Legibility? Readability and legibility are the two terms in typography that explains the components of writing. Both terms relate to the ease and clarity of texts, but they are two separate concepts. Designers should be familiar with these terms because they are part of the language used to discuss typefaces, typesetting, and design. Readability or Legibility: Which One to Focus On? “Readability” is more about a text’s meaning, and “legibility” is more about the letters on the page. The decision of whether to use legibility or readability in your writing depends on your audience. For example, a marketing blog is likely to emphasize readability. This is because the intent of the blog is for people to understand the meaning of the ideas being shared. However, a website arguing against a political candidate is usually more concerned with legibility. It would use it as an advantage to have a good representation of the rhetorical points in their text. 6 L LEGIBILITY
7 What’s the Difference Between Readability and Legibility? Readability is the arrangement of fonts and words in order to make written content flow in a simple, easy to read manner. Legibility refers to how easily distinguishable the letters in a typesetting or font are from one another. Readability is a responsibility shared by both the copywriter or content writer and the designer. While creating legible text typically lies solely on the designer and developer in digital material. So what’s more important? If the legibility of your fonts are crystal clear; but presenting poor quality content – your customer’s won’t read it. If the readability of your copy is compelling and on point; but lost in physically difficult to read typography…your customers can’t read it. If readers find it an effort to read and navigate your text, your business can wind up lost for words. Examples of Bad and Good Design Legibility of a text is something most people will not appreciate as long as it is adequate. Only if it lacks, it becomes a nuisance that will severely worsen the user experience of any human–machine interface. When dealing with space restrictions or trying to achieve a particular design language, user interface designers often choose to adjust the text size to the space deemed available. Many texts in user interfaces or online publications are on the thin line between being convenient to read and being not. POOR READABILITY RTHIS IS HOW CHANGE HAPPENS . ONE GESTURE . ONE PERSON . ONE MOMENT AT A TIME GREAT READABILITY ALL WE HAVE IS WORD, ALL WE HAVE IS WORD LEGIBILITY
TRACKING How to define tracking in typography ? Tracking (also known as letter spacing) is the adjustment of space for groups of letters and entire blocks of text. It can make text appear more airy or more dense and affects the appearance and readability of text. Tracking can be applied to small portions of text or an entire block at a time. For example script typefaces often require tight letter spacing because the letters should connect, but they also require extra space between the words otherwise they type is difficult to read. Tracking is a term used to identify the way you decrease or increase the horizontal spacing between a range of letters or characters. Usually, this technique is a method designers leverage to adjust and fine-tune the letter spacing of a logo, or font on a website. It works alongside kerning and leading. Tracking in graphic design can apply to the letters in a single word, or the way a whole paragraph of text might look on a page. Many designers leverage tracking in tiny increments to refine the appearance of an asset gradually, but subtly. Although tracking in design first emerged as a concept a long time ago, back in age of manual printing presses, it’s still relevant today. In the days of metal and block-based typing, every point size of a given typeface stood as a separate font. This meant the punch cutter in a business could adjust to transform the spacing and design of each asset. In the digital world, tracking in typography is something usually handled with a software program. Whether you’re using serif, or sans-serif fonts, you’ll use your software to make intelligent choices based on how letters in a word work together. TRACKING TRACKING TR AC KI N G T R A C K I N G TRACKING TRACKING TRACKING 8 TRACKING
What Is leading in typography? The size of the leading, which is usually measured in points, will determine how much space there is between each line of text and ultimately affects readability. Too small or tight of a leading can make reading more difficult, while too large or loose of a leading can make it look awkward and unprofessional. When done correctly, however, leading can help create balance and visual harmony in your designs as well as improve legibility. With these tips in mind, you’ll be sure to use leading effectively when creating your own designs! Leading in typography, leading definition typogra- phy, typography leading, define leading in typogra- phy, leading meaning in typography, how is leading measured in typography, negative leading, positive leading, open leading, loose leading. What is the purpose of leading in typography? Typography is an important aspect of graphic design — it can really make or break a piece. Leading in typography is the spacing between lines of text, and it is a powerful tool for conveying different types of messages. By adjusting the leading, designers can control the way readers perceive a piece of text; whether they find it exciting or calming, easy to read, or too busy. It’s all about creating balance, such that readers are respected as both intellectual and emotional beings. LEADING LEADING LEADING LEADING LEADING LEADING LEADING LEADING 9 LEADING
KERNING HAVE YOU EVER HEARD ABOUT KERNIING? Kerning is a concept within graphic design. Specifically, this element addresses the typography and font choices in your graphic strategies. Kerning is the “spacing between a pair of letters”. It applies to logo design, when you’re creating word and letter marks. It’s also relevant in the creation of packaging for products, websites, blog posts, emails, and even printed copy in the offline world. Kerning isn’t just the number of millimeters between each letter. It’s a strategy for making different kinds of font have a specific impact on the viewer. Already, the style of a font impacts the kind of emotional influence it has. A handwritten font is more playful than a serif type, for instance. Kerning emphasizes the elements of a font, or adds further depth to them, to convey more meaning. Widely spaced-out type can look more clinical, for example, while letters closer together seem more urgent. Kerning originally appeared in the design world a long time ago, back when designers and publishers used to use blocks for each individual letter on a typewriter or printing machine. In this age, letters were surrounded by clear boxes to determine how much space was applied between each character. When spacing was off in the older days of design, creators had to carve segments out of blocks to make the letters fit together appropriately. Today, design and typography software makes it easy to simply adjust the kerning of your letters with the tap of a button. KERNING WITH KERNING Why is kerning necessary? Kerning is used to create an equal appearance of whitespace between all letters. Equal letter spacing helps us to focus on the letterforms. Uneven spacing would inevitably draw the reader’s attention. Another crucial aspect is the difference between the letter spacing within a word and the space between words. If the spacing between letter pairs in a word is uneven or too big in some cases, it confuses the readers, because they are tempted to see a word space where there is none. So, properly kerned text will not only look more visually pleasing, it will also be more legible and increase the reading comfort for longer texts. Type designers define the sidebearings of each letter in a way that corresponds with the letterform. As a result, most letters can be combined with other letters while automatically creating the appropriate amount of letter-spacing. But with roman fonts, there are going to be letter combinations which require a custom setting for specific letter pairs— kerning! KE RNI NG WITHOUT KERNING 10 KERNING
What is the difference between kerning and tracking? To properly explain the difference between tracking vs kerning, we first need to define both of these terms. Kerning and tracking are terms from within the font, logo, and general brand design environment. Whenever you choose a sans-serif or serif font for a publication or headline, you’ll need to use kerning and tracking to ensure it looks right on a page. Kerning and tracking fall into the “fundamental” list of typography design choices. As mentioned above, they both address the space in between letters on a page, screen, or in a design. Kerning looks at the adjustments of spaces between a pair of letters, while tracking examines the spacing between larger groups of letters and blocks of text. Kerning and tracking are usually accessed simultaneously for things like webpage design and the production of branded materials (like catalogues). Designers would use kerning functionality to ensure the spaces between characters works correctly, while tracking would ensure the content flows correctly throughout the page. Why Kern? The challenge of good design is to convey your message as clearly and as quickly as possible. It’s not just about creating something visually appealing. Kerning is a tool that designers use to increase the clarity of their message. The tiniest change can immediately influence the impact of a piece of content. Plus, kerning can convey elegance and sophistication and give insight into how much care a brand shows to detail. Designing a logo is part science and part art, and every single millimeter can spell beauty or disaster. How you space your type can instantly change how people perceive your brand. If we understand the history of kerning, there’s a straightforward explanation as to why we’ve been doing this since the olden printing days. Each letter used to be carved individually into wooden blocks. So, in essence, each letter is surrounded by a box which now has become all but invisible with digital fonts. Yet it still exists. Avail written with and without kerningImage source: Creatopy Sometimes these boxes would create too much space around a character depending on its shape, so in the past, typographers would physically cut notches into the wooden blocks to help the letters come together in a more beautiful way. That’s how old-school kerning used to happen. Luckily, today the process is less complicated and can be done in secK e 11 KERNING
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