TYPEFACES LEGIBILITY OF DIGITAL MEDIA

Typefaces communicate the style, tone and voice of your brand

Typefaces are important for establishing the tone of the brand. The best typefaces to use are the ones that are legible and convey the brand message. As the primary focus of my project is electronic media; therefore, I have to be very specific on typefaces that respond well to both mediums.

Type and colors respond very unpredictable ways on-screen, especially if it has animations. Therefore, thorough testing for broadcast is significant. Broadcast screens still have significant resolution constraints. The texts displayed on these screens are made up of pixels, making the small text hard to read. Therefore, some details of the traditional font need to be weighted to avoid anti-aliasing.

Sports graphics has complex analysis info-graphics and comparisons that need to use smaller elements to be displayed on the screen that requires extra safety measures. Studies have shown that sans-serif typefaces are the preferred option for the screen. Typically sans serif’s are simple and have a more open face. Therefore, San serif typefaces respond well on screen as compared to serif typefaces because the higher the resolution, the better the legibility. This is the reason that most electronic media are displaying the majority of text in sans serif, which is the completely opposite in print. However, After high definition and 4K technology this phenomena is fading with time.

What font best suits my need
1- Should have reasonable range of weight preferring Family
2-Should be readable and legible at large and small sizes on screen.
3- Numeric and special characters should be clear and not annoying to eyes.
4-should be used multi-purpose within the brand.

Wilson (2001), an e-commerce consultant found that 68% of 1,643 subjects preferred reading 12-pt. Arial to 12-pt Times New Roman on the Web. This result is readily supported in the design community:

The variable boldness and fine extra strokes of the serif fonts, particularly at smaller sizes of body text, often appear pixilated and untidy. This is still the case even with the most modern antialiasing techniques…. On the other hand, the straight, low contrast, open strokes of a
sansserif font, such as Verdana, will always leave a good impression onscreen, (Hume, 2005).