[Sigia-l] Legibility?

[prai at prady.com]

James wrote -
> 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.

'Typeface design' was my major project in a previous life. I can put forth
some examples to explain the above.

'Readability' - is often associated with the body text. It is to ease out
reading body content without staggering. The Myth is that 'serif' fonts
are better 'readable' than Sans Serifs.

'Legibility' - is often associated by display texts. This is often
considered for 'headings', 'signage systems' etc. And the myth is that
'san serifs' such as 'Helvetica, Universe' are the best 'legible' than
'sherif' types.

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

You bet, it is.

Pradyot Rai