[net.text] Readability

jaap@haring.UUCP (02/04/84)

Ahhhh, readability.

Legibility is probably a better word. Quoting from "An essay on typography",
of Gill (from the Gill sans-serif), and likely incorrect since I don't have the
book by hand:
 ``An argument in favour of (right-) justified text is the observation that
   trained readers tend to scan and so read a text in a boustrophidonical
   manner, and are capable to read right to left as long as the text isn't
   too complicated.  This is also true for unjustified text, as long as the
   differences in the length of the lines are small. Too much difference on
   the other hand, will disturb the smooth eye movements, and will make the
   text more difficult to read (or scan).''

Well, it looks like another religious discussion is popping up in this group,
just like wombat's, creationists, waterbeds etc. If we have beaten this horse
to death, we can start to fight about the ``advantages'' of sand-serif fonts.
I suggest we move this discussion to net.text. Seems the right place for this,
(waterbeds to net.rec, creationists to net.religion or /dev/null).

Jaap Akkerhuis (mcvax!jaap)

colonel@sunybcs.UUCP (George Sicherman) (02/06/84)

I missed the earlier part of this discussion.  Isn't the advantage
of right justification that you know in advance when you will have
to jump to the next line?

colonel@sunybcs.UUCP (George Sicherman) (02/06/84)

I missed the earlier part of this discussion.  Isn't the advantage
of right justification that you know in advance when you will need
to jump to the next line?