Readability is the interaction between type and the person reading it. There are many factors that play into readability such as background, spacing, typeface, line length, justification, paragraph density, grammar, and color of the text. If the text is not well prepared or written, then the reader will not have a comfortable read. Readability refers to the impression a piece of text creates. Readability is not about appearance but the difficulty of the language.
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Legibility is having the ability to distinguish between one character from the other by turning letters into words and so forth. It is how easily a typeset can be read. Legibility does not have anything to do with content of language but size and appearance of text.
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3 comments:
In your first paragraph, "Readability is ...", you have included several factors that I think of as falling in the legibility category.
It suggests to me that Readability depends on Legibility and Content.
For about a year I have been searching for "Legibility Testing, Grading, and Standards" and have lad little success. There are ways of tesing Readability. This is being studied in university psychology departments and they test the differences between fonts, but I have found nobody with a test for the legibility of printed copy. I may be forced to do it myself and have been collecting printed samples, especially the ones that offend my old eyes. I would like to see the professionals who study legibility deal with legibility and the distributuion of near vision acuity in the reading population so that we can have an objective standard of minimum acceptable legibility. I have found only two: aircraft wiring labels and material State sends to the President.
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Your picture is missing :/
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