From the course: Learning Type Design

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Readability and legibility

Readability and legibility

From the course: Learning Type Design

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Readability and legibility

- [Narrator] For most people, readability and legibility are used interchangeably. For the typographer, they are clearly distinguishable, and act as a guiding principle in type design and typesetting. Readability means that the text can be read, that the text and the typeface it's set in are decipherable. This is the most basic test for a typeface, and both designer and type users often flirt with the readability in the pursuit of expression. Heavily decorated type may convey and idea or feeling, but may also push the bounds of readability. The same can be said of very small type, or type set in all caps. You've probably had the experience of struggling to read a menu item in a dimly lit restaurant because the type was too small, or too closely set. That's an instance where type use hindered readability. The use, rather than the type itself, was to blame. You may have also seen an exciting piece of graffiti, where the vibrancy of color and the urgency of form drew you in, but were you…

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