research-article

Legibility of Light and Ultra-Light Fonts: Eyetracking Study

Authors:

Ivan Burmistrov,

Tatiana Zlokazova,

Iuliia Ishmuratova,

Maria SemenovaAuthors Info & Claims

NordiCHI '16: Proceedings of the 9th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

Article No.: 110, Pages 1 - 6

https://doi.org/10.1145/2971485.2996745

Published: 23 October 2016 Publication History

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Abstract

The use of light and ultra-light fonts has become an omnipresent trend in the design of modern user interfaces. Although this trend has been criticized by a number of usability experts, no empirical research exists to date on the legibility of these fonts. We present the results of a preliminary eyetracking study showing that light and ultra-light fonts are less legible than their regular and bold counterparts in two variations of text-background contrast (low vs high) and two variations of text-background polarity (positive vs negative). Oculomotor indicators like mean fixation duration and saccade amplitude show that light and ultra-light fonts also induce higher cognitive load. Our study suggests avoiding light and ultra-light fonts for body text.

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Cited By

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Lataifeh MAhmed NElbardawil SGordani S(2024)Assessing the Legibility of Arabic Road Signage Using Eye Gazing and Cognitive Loading MetricsComputers10.3390/computers1305012313:5(123)Online publication date: 15-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/computers13050123
Sethi TZiat M(2023)Dark mode vogue: Do light-on-dark displays have measurable benefits to users?Ergonomics10.1080/00140139.2022.216087966:12(1814-1828)Online publication date: Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2022.2160879
Elbardawil S(2023)Empirical assessment of the legibility of the Naskh-style typeface used on Arabic road signsInformation Design Journal10.1075/idj.22022.elb28:2(178-194)Online publication date: 7-Sep-2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.22022.elb
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Legibility of Light and Ultra-Light Fonts: Eyetracking Study
1. Human-centered computing

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Published In

NordiCHI '16: Proceedings of the 9th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

October 2016

1045 pages

ISBN:9781450347631

DOI:10.1145/2971485

General Chairs:
Staffan Björk
University of Gothenburg
,
Eva Eriksson
Chalmers University of Technology
,
Program Chairs:
Morten Fjeld
Chalmers University of Technology
,
Susanne Bødker
University of Aarhus
,
Publications Chairs:
Wolmet Barendregt
University of Gothenburg
,
Mohammad Obaid
Chalmers University of Technology

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Chalmers University of Technology
SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 23 October 2016

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Russian Foundation for Basic Research

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NordiCHI '16

NordiCHI '16: 9th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

October 23 - 27, 2016

Gothenburg, Sweden

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NordiCHI '16 Paper Acceptance Rate 58 of 231 submissions, 25%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 379 of 1,572 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

View all

Lataifeh MAhmed NElbardawil SGordani S(2024)Assessing the Legibility of Arabic Road Signage Using Eye Gazing and Cognitive Loading MetricsComputers10.3390/computers1305012313:5(123)Online publication date: 15-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/computers13050123
Sethi TZiat M(2023)Dark mode vogue: Do light-on-dark displays have measurable benefits to users?Ergonomics10.1080/00140139.2022.216087966:12(1814-1828)Online publication date: Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2022.2160879
Elbardawil S(2023)Empirical assessment of the legibility of the Naskh-style typeface used on Arabic road signsInformation Design Journal10.1075/idj.22022.elb28:2(178-194)Online publication date: 7-Sep-2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.22022.elb
Wallace SBylinskii ZDobres JKerr BBerlow STreitman RKumawat NArpin KMiller DHuang JSawyer B(2022)Towards Individuated Reading Experiences: Different Fonts Increase Reading Speed for Different IndividualsACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/350222229:4(1-56)Online publication date: 31-Mar-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3502222
Wang XZhang HHe MLiu YZhang L(2022)The Influence of Font Size, Contrast, and Weight on Text Legibility for Wearable DevicesEngineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics10.1007/978-3-031-06086-1_10(124-136)Online publication date: 16-Jun-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06086-1_10
Beier SOderkerk CBay BLarsen M(2021)Increased letter spacing and greater letter width improve reading acuity in low vision readersInformation Design Journal10.1075/idj.19033.bei26:1(73-88)Online publication date: 28-Apr-2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.19033.bei
Buttner AGrunvogel SFuhrmann A(2020)The influence of text rotation, font and distance on legibility in VR2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)10.1109/VRW50115.2020.00182(662-663)Online publication date: Mar-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/VRW50115.2020.00182
Zlokazova TBurmistrov I(2017)Perceived Legibility and Aesthetic Pleasingness of Light and Ultralight FontsProceedings of the European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics10.1145/3121283.3121296(191-194)Online publication date: 19-Sep-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3121283.3121296

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The effects of font type and size on the legibility and reading time of online text by older adults

Effects of Font Size, Stroke Width, and Character Complexity on the Legibility of Chinese Characters

Perceived Legibility and Aesthetic Pleasingness of Light and Ultralight Fonts

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