Our eyes see the type and our brains see Don Quixote chasing a windmill. We don’t linger on those spaces and details instead, our brains do the heavy lifting of parsing the text and assembling a mental picture of what we’re reading. What you see and what you’re experiencing as you read these words is quite different.Īs our eyes move across the text, our minds gobble up the type’s texture-the sum of the positive and negative spaces inside and around letters and words. Reading is not only informed by what’s going on with us at that moment, but also governed by how our eyes and brains work to process information. It’s shaped by our surroundings (am I in a loud coffee shop or otherwise distracted?), our availability (am I busy with something else?), our needs (am I skimming for something specific?), and more. It’s appealing to think that’s the case, but reading is a much more nuanced experience. But what actually happens when someone reads it? I saw the work as a collection of the typographic considerations I made: the lovingly set headlines, the ample whitespace, the typographic rhythm (fig 1.1). I spent countless hours crafting the right layout and type arrangements. When I first started designing websites, I assumed everyone read my work the same way I did. Once we bring readers in, what else can we do to keep their attention and help them understand our writing? Let’s take a brief look at what the reading experience is like and how design influences it. Don’t let your design deter your readers or stand in the way of what they want to do: read. To paraphrase Stephen Coles, the term readability doesn’t ask simply, “Can you read it?” but “Do you want to read it?”Įach decision you make could potentially hamper a reader’s understanding, causing them to bail and update their Facebook status instead. ![]() You’ve heard of TL DR (too long didn’t read)? Length isn’t the only detractor to reading poor typography is one too. Readability combines the emotional impact of a design (or lack thereof ) with the amount of effort it presumably takes to read. Legibility means that text can be interpreted, but that’s like saying tree bark is edible. Just because something is legible doesn’t mean it’s readable. But what circumstances affect reading? Readability #section2 We need to welcome readers and convince them to sit with us. One of design’s functions is to entice and delight. Just as you’re my audience for this book, I want you to look at your audience too: your readers. We’ve all made something we wanted someone else to read, but have you ever thought about that person’s reading experience? But because reading is so intrinsic to every other thing about typography, it’s the best place for us to begin. ![]() The act of reading is beautifully complex, and yet, once we know how, it’s a kind of muscle memory. ![]() This is what makes typography not only an art of communication, but one of nuance and craft, because like all communication, its value falls somewhere on a spectrum between success and failure. Sure, we have other ways to do those things, like speech or imagery, but type is efficient, flexible, portable, and translatable. Type and typography wouldn’t exist without our need to express and record information. The intention of a text depends on its presentation, but it needs you to give it meaning through reading. This is the most interesting thing about typography: it’s a chain reaction of time and place with you as the catalyst. Brief books for people who make websites.
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