[Sigia-l] Legibility?

[James Spahr]

On Monday, September 15, 2003, at 12:51  AM, Listera wrote:

>> we are talking about readability here, not legibility.
>
> Says who?:-)
>
> Since you seem to be interested in typography:
>
> Legibility
> The ease with which text is read in ordinary, continuous reading,  
> usually
> gauged by reading speed and error rate.  Also, Readability.
>
> Typography Glossary - L <http://www.redsun.com/type/glossary/l.shtml>
>

I was referencing a book (the David Jury text that I previously  
mentioned) on the subject that defines legibility as the ability to  
distinguish individual letterforms and readability as the ease of  
reading a passage of text.

He has a fair amount of text that talks about how the two terms are  
related and how typography and can help or hinder legibility and  
readability. Again, I recommend looking at the book if you want to get  
this detailed.

Or, find more respectable online references for your data:

http://www.itcfonts.com/ulc/ 
article.asp?nCo=AFMT&sec=ulc&issue=26.2.1&art=legibility

U&lc is a fairly well know and respected publication in the typography  
profession (even if it is published by ITC).

> Hair splitting?

Don't we always? why else would threads linger here for months? :)


James.