Re: The old Sans vs Serif chestnut

While there may be no legibility difference proven either way, there  
may be genre considerations - that is, whether the document appears to  
address the intended audience in a way they are used to, that makes it  
feel that the document is for them, and that triggers an appropriate  
response as the addressee.

With that perspective it's not entirely unrespectable to ask people  
their views. However, I suspect this becomes rather circular - if  
everything for a particular audience is designed in a certain way it  
becomes the genre norm, and therefore probably preferred. And it also  
excludes that audience from an aesthetic dimension that is available  
to others.

__________________________________

Rob Waller

Department of Typography & Graphic Communication
University of Reading
T +44 (0) 118 378 6411
M +44 (0) 7850 665933



On 15 Mar 2010, at 15:44, Mark Barratt wrote:

> Matt Carey wrote:
>> However their 'report' is being waved at us as a blanket refusal to  
>> consider serif in this case!
>>
>> I would quite like to wave something back at them :)
>
> It's a problem. But not one with a ready solution. There is exactly  
> zero
> research evidence of any systematic advantage to serif or sans type in
> the circumstances you describe, but they have some evidence of, as you
> report it, *preference* by some (presumably) visually challenged users
> of some unspecified kind.
>
> They say 'the preferred font for accessibility in the disability  
> sector
> is sans serif'. And it's true, from my own experience.
>
> This point was also raised a while ago on this list by Katie Grant  
> (May
> 2009) - again with no happy outcome - Katie, did you persuade them  
> to be
> sensible?
>
> best
>
> -- 
> Mark Barratt
> Text Matters
>
> Information design: we help explain things using
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