Effects of typeface and font size on legibility for Children

Abstract

Eighty children (kindergarten through 4th grade) performed discrimination and identification tasks for tachistoscopically-presented letter pairs. Letter pairs manipulated font (Times New Roman, Arial), point size (12- and 18-point) and letter-pair discrimination difficulty (easy, medium, and hard). Higher percent correct scores occurred for the Arial font and 18-pt size, and performance was better for discrimination than identification. Effects and within-grade variability were larger for the lower grades, with performance differences decreasing by the second grade. Letter frequency better predicted letter-pair discriminability for the lower grades, but by the fourth grade, the trends began to match adult discriminability categories. These differences may be due to both physiological (e.g., eye movements) and cognitive (e.g., memory and attention) development. INTRODUCTION