Digital Fonts and Reading

The book is a collection of invited chapters by renowned experts and is part of a series on Language Processing, Pattern Recognition, and Intelligent Systems. The content is wide-ranging, encompassing perspectives from computer science to social science to design and reflecting the considerable experience of researchers, teachers and practitioners. This diversity offers rigorous approaches to the topic of Digital fonts and reading, organised in four sections: vision and reading; scientific approaches to reading; perspectives on type design practice; and using type. The heavily illustrated text includes original research, case studies, reviews, and practical advice, serving as a useful handbook or reference to inform design for reading. Traditionally, there has been a separation between researchers and practitioners, with different agendas. This book bridges the gap between scientific testing and design experience and considers the reader's perspective. The collection aims to resonate with academics and students, experienced or novice typographic or interface designers and software engineers, and engage with anyone who has an interest in type and reading.

Contents:

• Vision and Reading:

  • The Effect of Type Design and Typesetting on Visually Impaired Readers (Eleni Beveratou)
  • Matilda: A Typeface for Children with Low Vision (Ann Bessemans)

• Scientific Approaches to Reading:

  • Sitka: A Collaboration Between Type Design and Science (Kevin Larson and Matthew Carter)
  • Eye Movements: From Psycholinguistics to Font Design (Timothy J Slattery)
  • Designing Legible Fonts for Distance Reading (Sofie Beier)
  • Effects of Interword Spacing on Chinese Children's Reading Abilities (Hsiu-Feng Wang)

• Perspectives on Type Design Practice:

  • Elements of Chinese Typeface Design (Xiaoqing Lu and Ting Tang)
  • Optimizing Type for Use in Specific Media (Eben Sorkin)
  • 'Harmonised Type Design' Revisited (Titus Nemeth)
  • Using Pattern Languages in Typographic Design (Rob Mckaughan)

• Using Type:

  • How Does Expertise Contribute to the Recognition of Latin and Chinese Characters? (Mary C Dyson, Keith Tam, Clare Leake, Brian Kwok)
  • Newspaper Text (Lucie Lacava)
  • Perception of Fonts: Perceived Personality Traits and Appropriate Uses (A Dawn Shaikh and Barbara Chaparro)
  • Legibility and Readability of Arabic Fonts on Personal Digital Assistants PDAs (Mrouj Almuhajri and Ching Y Suen)

Readership: Design practitioners and software engineers.