Readability vs Legibility

Readability and Legibility are similar concepts with a few differences that I will cover in this blog.

What is Readability?  Readability is a simple concept.  Make it easy for the user to read the text on your webpage and you've got readability.  To accomplish this you need to follow some general guidelines.  

• Use sans serif typeface for areas where you have lots of text.  
• Use the correct font size, in most cases 12 point size works best.
• Avoid really long lines of text when possible. 
• Avoid using large amounts of bold, italic, all caps, small caps etc. 
• Use good contrast.  This one is very important because it affects both readability and legibility.  

When I was looking through all the class blogs, I found this poll that has both readability and legibility issues and is a good example of what to avoid. Sorry Beth for picking on you.  The dark font on the dark background is a problem and needs to be changed to white. The scroll bar is also annoying and requires a user to take action in order to see all of the content.

What is Legibility?  Legibility is also a simple concept and differs from Readability because it applies to short bursts of text like lists, signs, buttons, page header etc. To make sure you have excellent Readability follow these guidelines.

• Use sans serif typeface.
• Avoid using all caps because it can hinder the user from quickly recognizing the word by altering its shape.
• Use different Photoshop techniques like anti-aliasing to make small font stand out.
• Be aware of contrast issues.

When designing a website it's crucial to make sure you understand the basics of typography and adhere to best practices that help ensure the website viewer can easily read your content.  Typography can be a challenge because there's many variables that can affect it.  While challenging, it's not impossible to make a beautiful website that looks great and is easy to read.  One of the best ways to control how your website looks is to use CSS (cascading style sheets).  Using CSS you can easily and quickly change the look of your whole site.  CSS also allows you to use very large font on your website.  When working with CSS one has to remember that not all browsers interpret css files the same way so thorough testing is required.  I plan to use CSS when I design my website project in order to have more control and flexibility in the design.