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Re: question about font

for

From: Kristin Evenson Hirst
Date: Sep 4, 2001 1:35PM

At 01:31 PM 9/4/01 -0400, Rachael Zubal < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>I've heard from someone that the Verdana font (I believe) is one of the
best fonts for web pages.
>Does anyone have information on this?
From the Software Usability Research Lab, Dept of Psychology, Wichita
State University:
Usability News, Summer 2001
"A Comparison of Popular Online Fonts: Which is Best and When? "
http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/3S/font.htm
"...no significant difference in actual legibility between the font types
were detected. ... In this study, the font types that were perceived as
being most legible were Courier, Comic, Verdana, Georgia, and Times."
Ralph Wilson has an article at
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt6/html-email-fonts.htm on his email survey to
determine what his readers considered the most readable fonts and sizes for
HTML e-mail. He found:
"At the 12 point size, Arial is preferred for readability 6 to 4, while
two-thirds of respondents see Verdana 12 pt. as too large for body text.
But at 10 pt. and below, the readability preference shifts to Verdana. At
10 pt. Verdana is preferred over Arial for readability 2 to 1. And at 9 pt.
Verdana is preferred over Arial for readability by a 3 to 1 margin.
...My readers clearly prefer sans serif fonts to serif fonts for body text.
Therefore, in my HTML e-mail newsletters -- and on my websites -- I am
moving toward 12 pt. Arial for body text, and Verdana for 10 pt. and 9 p.
fonts. I haven't done adequate studies comparing Georgia against Verdana
for readability, but since Georgia isn't as widely installed as Verdana, I
plan to stick with Verdana. "

Kristin Evenson Hirst, Hirst Logics website development
http://www.hirstlogics.com/
PO Box 733, Iowa City IA 52244 -- e-mail: <EMAIL REMOVED>
phone: 319-621-0943
fax: 815-352-1685