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Factors influencing legibility and comprehension of textBefore considering the actual factors influencing legibility and comprehension of text, it is important to understand what visibility, legibility and readability mean. Visibility (or detectability) indicates the “quality of a character or symbol that makes it separately visible from its surrounding” (Sanders 1993). Legibility (or discriminability) indicates the “attribute of alphabetic characters that makes it possible for each one to be identifiable from other” (Sanders 1993). Readability indicates a “quality that makes possible the recognition of the information content of material when it is represented by alphanumeric characters in meaningful groupings, such as words, sentences, or continuous text” (Sanders 1993). All three factors are important for the comprehension of text. Comprehension of text is a complicated process that involves seeing the character, being able to distinctly identify each character from the other and finally making sense of the characters as a group. All three characteristics of text and characters contribute to the complexity of reading and comprehending text. Various factors influence how the eye and brain will interpret the information received and will, in the end, influence the visibility, legibility, and readability of text. These factors can be regrouped in four categories: factors directly related to the font, factors related to the arrangement of text, factors related to the environment, and personal factors. A summary of the factors is shown in Table 1. Each factor cannot be considered in isolation. Its impact on visibility, legibility and readability is relative and depends on interaction between factors. This relativity then makes it difficult to develop general guidelines related to the comprehension of text. In addition, as indicated by McNeese and Katz (1986), some recommendations and guidelines that could be valid for specific media, display or interface, might not be transferable to other media, display or interface. Generalization of guidelines should then be considered with care. Table 1: Summary of factors influencing visibility, legibility and readability of text
Guideline links for legibility and comprehension of text Products:
Infrastructure:
References McNeese, Michael D. and Luan Katz. 1986. Legibility evaluation of a large-screen display system under medium ambient illumination. Proceedings of the Society for Information Display 28, no. 1: 59-65. Sanders, Mark S. 1993. Human factors in engineering and design. Edited by Mark S. Sanders and Ernest J. McCormick. New York: McGraw-Hill. Authors
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