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https://v-fonts.com/fonts/roboto-flex

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ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩ
αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρσςτυφχψω
АБВГДЕЖЗИЙКЛМНОПРСТУФХЦЧШЩЪЫЬЭЮЯ
абвгдежзийклмнопрстуфхцчшщъыьэюя

A variable adaptation of Google's Roboto typeface, with a bevy of options for adjusting different parameters of the design.

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A variable adaptation of Google's Roboto typeface, with a bevy of options for adjusting different parameters of the design.

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Amstelvar

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
АБВГДЕЖЗИЙКЛМНОПРСТУФХЦЧШЩЪЫЬЭЮЯ
абвгдежзийклмнопрстуфхцчшщъыьэюя
ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩ
αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρσςτυφχψω

Amstelvar Italic

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
АБВГДЕЖЗИЙКЛМНОПРСТУФХЦЧШЩЪЫЬЭЮЯ
абвгдежзийклмнопрстуфхцчшщъыьэюя
ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩ
αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρσςτυφχψω

​Amstelvar is an exercise in variable weight, contrast, and proportions. Positive and negative forms can be manipulated as separate axes, as well as a large array of other variables. It is an experimental work in progress so can produce unusual results.

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​Amstelvar is an exercise in variable weight, contrast, and proportions. Positive and negative forms can be manipulated as separate axes, as well as a large array of other variables. It is an experimental work in progress so can produce unusual results.

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https://v-fonts.com/fonts/lexend

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A simple resource for finding and trying variable fonts

Tags

decorative/display

body text

serif

sans

slab serif

script

more …

Designers

Publishers

Character sets

Latin

Cyrillic

Greek

Arabic

Hebrew

more …

Licenses

Paid/commercial

Trial

Free for non-commercial use

Free for commercial use

Open source

more …

App support

About

⚠️ Notice: As a showcase of variable fonts, this site requires a web browser that supports OpenType font variation technology. It looks like your browser doesn’t, so please consider upgrading to one that does (the latest versions of Chrome work well, even on older operating systems). Otherwise, the font samples below will only appear as static fonts.

Lexend

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789

lexend: | 0 | | 100

A geometric sans, derived from Andrew Paglinawan’s Quicksand type family, that claims to “significantly improve reading-proficiency” (though the research behind such claims is questionable and/or misleading).

Tags: body text, sans, geometric, woman-designed
Design: | Bonnie Shaver-Troup, Thomas Jockin
Publisher: | Thomas Jockin
Characters: | Latin, Vietnamese
Released: | 2019-04-09
Licensing: | Open source
Info/fonts: | github.com

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A geometric sans, derived from Andrew Paglinawan's Quicksand type family, that claims to "significantly improve reading-proficiency" (though the research behind such claims is questionable and/or misleading).

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Towards Individuated Reading Experiences: Different Fonts Increase Reading Speed for Different Individuals

Shaun Wallace, Zoya Bylinskii, Jon Dobres, Bernard Kerr, Sam Berlow, Rick Treitman, Kathleen Arpin, Dave Miller, Jeff Huang, Ben Sawyer

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https://readabilitymatters.org/readabilitysandbox/

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Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversation?”

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https://www.thereadabilityconsortium.org/

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To achieve this, The Readability Consortium will research and re-engineer Readability, making designers and readers alike ready for our information-intensive digital future.

Our membership steers collaborative research, the creation of open-source tools for the growing readability community, and the development of big data around digital reading.

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To achieve this, The Readability Consortium will research and re-engineer Readability, making designers and readers alike ready for our information-intensive digital future. Our membership steers collaborative research, the creation of open-source tools for the growing readability community, and the development of big data around digital reading.

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https://readabilitymatters.org/

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We build better reading. Our mission is to engage an ecosystem of partners to deliver personalized reading environments, empowering everyone to achieve more

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https://www.readworks.org/

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ReadWorks | Award-Winning, EdTech Nonprofit Organization

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ReadWorks is an edtech nonprofit organization that is committed to helping to solve America’s reading comprehension crisis.

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https://www.thereadability.group/

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Words matter and need to be chosen carefully for maximum impact. But how those words are presented, how they look, is often neglected. This can negate the effect of carefully crafted content.

Choosing the right typeface and adhering to good typographic practice, not only helps support words and statements but in many cases enhances accessibility which helps you reach a broader audience.

Accessibility of written communications consists of three pillars: emotional, functional and technical. Each is unique in its definition and reader requirements, and each has to meet the reader's expectations. It is in their combined completeness that the written word achieves optimum impact on the reader.

We identify three main categories of accessibility in written communications: emotional, functional and technical. Each is unique in its definition and reader requirements. And each must meet the reader's expectations. When combined, the written word acheives optimal impact on the reader.

The Readability Group aims to optimise typographic accessibility. Inevitably, there are compromises that need to be made that may affect maximum performance in one area to ensure it's satisfactory in others. Our passion is in typographic best practice in respect to accessibility.

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Words matter and need to be chosen carefully for maximum impact. But how those words are presented, how they look, is often neglected. This can negate the effect of carefully crafted content. Choosing the right typeface and adhering to good typographic practice, not only helps support words and statements but in many cases enhances accessibility which helps you reach a broader audience.

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https://www.aiditalia.org/it/dislessia-che-fare

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Dislessia - disturbo specifico della lettura che si manifesta con una difficoltà nella decodifica del testo;

Disortografia - disturbo specifico della scrittura che si manifesta con difficoltà nella competenza ortografica e nella competenza fonografica;

Disgrafia- disturbo specifico della grafia che si manifesta con una difficoltà nell'abilità motoria della scrittura;

Discalculia - disturbo specifico dell'abilità di numero e di calcolo che si manifesta con una difficoltà nel comprendere e operare con i numeri.

I disturbi specifici dell'apprendimento (DSA)

I Disturbi Specifici dell'Apprendimento (DSA) sono disturbi del neuro-sviluppo che riguardano la capacità di leggere, scrivere e calcolare in modo corretto e fluente che si manifestano con l'inizio della scolarizzazione.

I DSA sono classificati in base alla difficoltà specifica che comportano. Si dividono in:

Dislessia - disturbo specifico della lettura che si manifesta con una difficoltà nella decodifica del testo;

Disortografia - disturbo specifico della scrittura che si manifesta con difficoltà nella competenza ortografica e nella competenza fonografica;

Disgrafia- disturbo specifico della grafia che si manifesta con una difficoltà nell'abilità motoria della scrittura;

Discalculia - disturbo specifico dell'abilità di numero e di calcolo che si manifesta con una difficoltà nel comprendere e operare con i numeri.

Questi disturbi dipendono dalle diverse modalità di funzionamento delle reti neuronali coinvolte nei processi di lettura, scrittura e calcolo. Non sono causati da un deficit di intelligenza, da problemi ambientali o psicologici e nemmeno da deficit sensoriali.

I DSA non sono una malattia in quanto non sono dovuti ad un danno organico, ma un diverso neuro funzionamento del cervello, che non impedisce la realizzazione della specifica abilità (lettura, scrittura, numerazione o altro) ma necessita di tempi più lunghi e carichi maggiori di attenzione. Questo diverso neuro funzionamento è innato e non è transitorio: accompagna l'individuo per tutta la vita.

Quindi non si "guarisce" dai Disturbi Specifici dell'Apprendimento ma le difficoltà che li accompagnano possono essere compensate con il tempo e con una buona attività di potenziamento/riabilitativa.

I 4 disturbi specifici dell'apprendimento: una rappresentazione grafica

Per saperne un po' di più

In Italia si stima che ci sia almeno un alunno con DSA per classe. Spesso i bambini e i ragazzi con DSA vengono erroneamente considerati svogliati e la loro intelligenza dà spazio a considerazioni come "è intelligente ma non si applica".

Questi ragazzi non hanno problemi cognitivi legati alla comprensione e, al di là dello studio, sono intelligenti, vivaci, socievoli e creativi.

Le loro difficoltà di apprendimento dipendono dalla non automatizzazione di processi specifici rendendo così difficili compiti e operazioni che vengono considerate erroneamente semplici.

Fornendo loro gli strumenti per compensare queste difficoltà è possibile permettergli di avere un apprendimento efficace.

Come parlare di DSA

I Disturbi Specifici dell'Apprendimento sono una caratteristica "invisibile": non sono immediatamente percepibili, e di conseguenza comprensibili, a chi non li vive in prima persona. Questa peculiarità fa sì che non sia semplice descrivere correttamente i DSA. Nonostante la dislessia e gli altri Disturbi Specifici dell'Apprendimento siano infatti un tema sempre più diffuso nel dibattito pubblico, la terminologia con cui vengono descritti, dai mass media e nel linguaggio comune, spesso non è corretta: questo rischia di generare confusione e confermare stereotipi discriminanti. Di seguito riportiamo alcuni esempi di termini da utilizzare e da evitare, quando ci si riferisce ai Disturbi Specifici dell'Apprendimento:

Scarica da questo link il vademecum su " come parlare di DSA "

Capire e spiegare i DSA

Uno dei modi migliori per comprendere i Disturbi Specifici dell'Apprendimento, e spiegarli agli altri, è attraverso il racconto di chi li vive nella quotidianità. Di seguito un elenco di libri, documentari e canzoni per immedesimarsi nel vissuto di una persona con DSA.

LIBRI

Il bambino che disegnava parole - Francesca Magni - scheda

Il demone bianco - Giacomo Cutrera - volume scaricabile in pdf

Il mago delle formiche giganti - Andrea Biancardi, Fiorella Cauduro, Morena Cauduro, Maria Grazia Pancaldi - scheda

Il pesce che scese dall'albero - Francesco Riva - scheda

Dove Finiscono le parole - Andrea Delogu - scheda

Ulteriori libri per approfondire i DSA sono disponibili all'interno dell'AID eShop, con sconti per i soci AID. Scopri il catalogo completo dei libri a questo link

FILM E DOCUMENTARI

MUSICA

I DSA in Italia: qualche numero

In Italia si stima che siano oltre due milioni le persone con Disturbi Specifici dell'Apprendimento.

Nel nostro paese non esistono attualmente dati ufficiali sul numero totale di persone con DSA, anche perché questi disturbi sono diagnosticati in maniera diffusa da meno di 30 anni: molti adulti con DSA non sono quindi in possesso di una certificazione diagnostica.

Le statistiche ufficiali a cui AID fa riferimento sono quelle forniti dal Ministero dell'Istruzione, che annualmente pubblica un report sugli studenti con DSA nella scuola italiana.

In base all'ultima indagine disponibile, relativa all'AS 2018/2019, gli alunni frequentanti le scuole italiane a cui è stato diagnosticato un disturbo specifico dell'apprendimento sono 298.114, pari al 4,9% del totale degli alunni (per un approfondimento su questi numeri, clicca qui).

Proiettando questa percentuale (4,9%) sulla popolazione nazionale, si può quindi ipotizzare che le persone con DSA in Italia siano per l'appunto oltre 2 milioni.

Secondo quanto riportato dalla European Dyslexia Association (EDA), le stime epidemiologiche degli altri paesi europei sui DSA si collocano tra il 5% e il 12%. Inoltre l'ultima revisione del Manuale Diagnostico e Statistico dell'Associazione degli Psichiatri Americani (APA, DSM V, 2013) ha innalzato le stime di prevalenza di questi disturbi dal 2-10% (APA, DSM IV-TR, 2000) al 5-15%.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dislessia - disturbo specifico della lettura che si manifesta con una difficoltà nella decodifica del testo; Disortografia - disturbo specifico della scrittura che si manifesta con difficoltà nella competenza ortografica e nella competenza fonografica; Disgrafia- disturbo specifico della grafia che si manifesta con una difficoltà nell'abilità motoria della scrittura; Discalculia - disturbo specifico dell'abilità di numero e di calcolo che si manifesta con una difficoltà nel comprendere e operare con i numeri.

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https://ia.net/topics/responsive-typography-the-basics

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When we built websites we usually started by defining the body text. The body text definition dictates how wide your main column is, the rest used to follow almost by itself. Used to. Until recently, screen resolution was more or less homogeneous. Today we deal with a variety of screen sizes and resolutions. This makes things much more complicated.

In the heat of relaunching ia.net I wrote a quick weblog post on responsive typography, focusing solely on the aspect of our latest experiment: responsive typefaces. Without knowing the history of iA, you'd miss some key aspects to the responsive typography and design in our relaunched site. I decided to start from scratch and explain responsive typography in detail, step by step. This is step one.

To avoid designing different layouts for every possible screen size, many web designers have adopted the concept of Responsive Web Design. In a nutshell this is the idea that your layout automatically adapts to the device viewport. There are different ways to do it, but I like to put it this way:

1. Adaptive layouts: adjusting the layout in steps to a limited number of sizes

2. Liquid layouts: adjusting the layout continuously to every possible width

While both have advantages and disadvantages, we believe that adaptive with as few break points as possible is better, because readability is more important than having a layout that is always as wide as the viewport. This is a debatable opinion on a complex matter in itself, but optimal readability requires a certain amount of control over the measure (column width) of the text, and in this regard a liquid layout creates more problems than it solves. More about that another time.

Note: Responsive design already incorporates a lot of macro-typographic issues (type size, line height, column widths), so responsive design already incorporates responsive typography in many ways. What we focused on in our responsive typography article mainly referred to our use of graded fonts on ia.net. I'd like to talk about grading in the next post and dive right into the basics of responsive macro typography on the screen now.

Choosing a Typeface

The Right Tone

Sooner or later, you need to decide what kind of typeface to use. The choice of your font is mainly a matter of tone, but as every typeface has its own qualities, and demands (or forbids) certain treatments, the choice of type has a lot of visual and technological consequences. With web fonts you now have a big choice of typefaces, so finding the one that fits has become yet another challenge.

In 2012 we designed our own typeface iABC for this website to experiment with responsive typography. We chose a serif because it fits our tone, and mirrored the refinement of our content (or at least that's what we thought). For iA Writer we chose a monospace typeface. Because the primary purpose of our program is helping you getting a first draft out, we specifically chose Nitti-a typeface that feels strong and careful at the same time. The decision to use a monospace typeface also came about because the first iPad's Operating System didn't auto-kern proportional typefaces. Instead of using a proportional typeface that would be rendered poorly, we decided to go for a monospace typeface right away.

Three years later, our love for Nitti has led to the custom proportional (and graded) version you're reading now.

Serif or Sans Serif?

Usually the choice falls between serif and sans serif. This is in itself a complex matter, but there is a simple rule of thumb that might help you: The serifed typeface is a priest, the sans is a hacker. One is not better than the other, but, for various reasons, a serifed typeface has a more authoritarian touch, whereas a sans serif feels more democratic. Remember, this is five thousand years of typographic history wrapped in two sloppy lines-don't take it too seriously.

A lot of people still think that for screen typography the question "serif or sans serif" answers itself. Actually, it's not that easy. Against common beliefs, both serif and sans serif can perform equally well, if you choose a body text size above 12 pixels. Below 12 pixels serifed typefaces don't render sharply enough, but (and this brings us to the second point) on contemporary monitors 12 pixels is definitely too small anyway.

What Size?

The size of your body text doesn't depend on your personal preference. It depends on reading distance. Since computers are generally further away than books, the metric size of a desktop typeface needs to be bigger than the sizes used for printed matter.

The illustration below shows that the further away your body text, the bigger it needs to be. The two black and the two red A's have the same metric size. But since the right pair is held further away, the perceived size is smaller. The red A in the right image has the same perceived size as the black A in the left image:

The further away you hold the text, the smaller it becomes visually. You need to make the text size bigger the further away the text is read, to compensate for a larger reading distance. How big is, again, a science in itself. If you are inexperienced, a useful trick is to hold a well-printed book at a comfortable reading distance while looking at your website to compare.

Graphic designers without web design experience are surprised how huge good body text on the web is in comparison to printed matter. Mind you, it's only big if you compare it side to side, not if you compare it in perspective.

If, after increasing the size of your body text to match, the new size irritates you in the beginning, don't worry-that's normal. However, once you're used to it, you will not want to go back to the "standard" small sizes.

We've been promoting these "perspectively proportional" font sizes since 2006. Initially, our claim that Georgia 16px was a good benchmark for body text sizes provoked a lot of anger and even some laughter, but now it's more or less a common standard. With higher resolutions, that standard is becoming slowly obsolete. But more on that later.

Line height and contrast

While body text size can be evaluated with that perspective trick, line height needs some adjustment. With more reading distance and (what we call) pixel smear, it's wise to give screen text a little bit more line height than printed text. 140% is a good benchmark, but of course, it depends on the typeface you use.

Today it's a given that you make sure that the contrast is not too weak (e.g. grey text on a light grey background) or too garish (e.g. pink on yellow). Since screen typefaces were designed to be displayed black on white, using dark backgrounds is also somewhat difficult, but these can work if done right. With contemporary high contrast screens it's also preferable to choose either a dark grey for text or a light grey for the background, instead of a hard black on white. But that is, again, not the most important question.

iPhone vs iPad

A lot of what we learned about responsive typography came from finding the perfect typography for our writing app. When we designed iA Writer for iPad we invested weeks to find the right typographic definition. At the time, the high resolution screen of the iPad was a completely new challenge, and it took quite some time until we understood how it works. When Apple introduced Retina displays for iPhones and later for iPad, everything changed again. We could write a whole book to explain how we got to the iconic look of the iA Writer typeface, but there is still so much to say about more general matters so I'll cut to the chase.

If you compare our current version of Writer for iPhone with the version for iPads, you will notice that the type size is not the same.

Why different type sizes for iPhone and iPad? If you read the above explanation attentively, you might have already guessed.

1. While the distance is not always the same, in general you hold the iPad a little bit further away. Whether you use your iPad on the breakfast table, on your knee sitting on your sofa or right in front of your face lying in bed gives a variety of reading distances. This was an entirely new challenge, because the reading distance on desktop and laptop computers doesn't vary that much. In order to make it work in all instances we chose the furthest reading distance defining the type size. This might result in a slightly bigger than usual type size when you read it in bed, but it's not uncomfortable, and generally you don't use a writing application lying on your stomach in bed.

2. You have less screen estate on an iPhone so you are forced to make adjustments.

Luckily, the iPhone is held closer to the face so being forced to use a smaller type size works out perfectly. From an average reading distance, both iPhone and iPad have a similar perceived type size.

Since the iPhone is held closer, the line height could also be tighter, which again is a necessity because of the smaller screen:

Not everything always works in your favor when you design for the screen. Interaction design is engineering: it's not about finding the perfect design, it's finding the best compromise. In our case we had to reduce the line height, and also the gutter and the spacing between characters:

The adjustments were so delicate that if you don't know it, you won't notice how small the gutter is. Why didn't we just get rid of the gutter? The gutter is not an aesthetic matter, it lets the text breathe and helps the eye to jump from line to line.
If you think that this all sounds esoteric: no, so far we've just covered the basics.

What About Desktop Computers?

Some people complain about the big font size in Writer for Mac. Just like we had to go for the biggest minimal size choosing the font size for iPad (which is held at different reading distances), we went for the biggest minimal font size on Mac as well. At the time our benchmark was a 24 inch high resolution iMac, where the perceived size is more or less the same as on all other devices.

Since the variety of Mac computers that run iA Writer is finite, we could determine the different possible resolutions. We looked at every possible configuration to make sure that the type size was the best compromise for most machines.

You might ask "Why not just allow the user to choose the type size?" Well, adjusting type size is not a matter of taste, but a matter of reading distance. Since most websites and applications have an overly small type size, new customers would initially choose a type size that they are used to, that is: too small a size, and never experience the full pleasure of our writing app. The main reason is not that we want to force a certain look upon all users: what we want is that iA Writer works without settings, without fumbling, that the only thing you can do with it is write. This has been the open secret of its success and changing that would be messing with its core. (What we need to improve are the accessibility integration for people with bad eye sight).

Okay then, why not adjusting to the device's resolution automatically? Wouldn't that be true responsive typography? That's right, and we are working on something similar. Now, in adjusting to the resolution, you also have to choose the right optical weight to make sure that the typeface really works as intended with every size and resolution. With the type size and the resolution optics of the font change as well. That's why iA Writer for Mac, iPad 1/2 and iPad3 all have different grades as well. To explain the full logic behind grading digital fonts and explain the thoughts behind our new Website, I need a little bit more time and space. So, stay tuned for Part II!

Response So Far

In spite of having no social media buttons, this article got lots of of retweets, very few critique points, mainly around the question of liquid vs adaptive layouts, a topic that I'd like to address at a later point. I was surprised when Joshua Porter asked:

@iA You had me until the line 'interaction design is engineering'. How does that work? -@Joshua Porter

Just in case other people wondered... The full citation is: "Not everything always works in your favor when you design for the screen. Interaction design is engineering: it's not about finding the perfect design, it's finding the best compromise." Usually I say "Web design is engineering: it's not about finding perfection, it's finding the best compromise." With the term "Web design" the sentence becomes a bit clearer because of the somewhat more obvious technical implication. I used "interaction design" because in the examples I used an app.

What it means is that while graphic design requires and allows you a great degree of graphic control, Web design requires you to think about compromises between visual design and technology from the very beginning. To get the optimal results you need to explore a lot of different solutions, each with its own pros and cons and try find the best compromise among all the suboptimal choices.

At this point, graphic designers often chime in and try to make the point that they, as well, deal with a lot of technology and so on. And sure, you do. All creation of artifacts, all design requires technological knowledge. But just as there is a difference between engineering car engines and Websites, there is a difference between designing Websites and Magazines. And the difference is the degree of engineering involved.

In conclusion that means that in the process of designing Websites and apps, a lot of what we do is thinking about compromises and trying to find solutions that do not have too many downsides. This is what turns a lot of graphic designers off, because they are used to having control. More about that in the excellent presentation by Khoi Vinh on the difference between screen and graphic design (2007).

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When we built websites we usually started by defining the body text. The body text definition dictates how wide your main column is, the rest used to follow almost by itself. Used to. Until recently, screen resolution was more or less homogeneous. Today we deal with a variety of screen sizes and resolutions.

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Prima di fare un test, consigli interdisciplinari

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Prima di fare un test, consigli interdisciplinari

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"Readability Research: An Interdisciplinary Approach" is now available on arXiv!

"Readability Research: An Interdisciplinary Approach" is now available on arXiv, an archival preprint service. Twenty-eight different authors - from around the world and across many disciplines - collaborated to author a 60+ page intro to Readability research toward the goal of accelerating best practices and methodologies.

The authors welcome your suggestions on this preprint while the paper is in review.

A special thanks to Dr. Zoya Bylinskii for her vision and leadership in producing this collaborative work and to the editorial team, Zoya along with Dr. Ben Sawyer and Dr. Benjamin Wolfe.

The full paper is available here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.09615

Readability Research: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Sofie Beier, Sam Berlow, Esat Boucaud, Zoya Bylinskii, Tianyuan Cai, Jenae Cohn, Kathy Crowley, Stephanie L. Day, Tilman Dingler, Jonathan Dobres, Jennifer Healey, Rajiv Jain, Marjorie Jordan, Bernard Kerr, Qisheng Li, Dave B. Miller, Susanne Nobles, Alexandra Papoutsaki, Jing Qian, Tina Rezvanian, Shelley Rodrigo, Ben D. Sawyer, Shannon M. Sheppard, Bram Stein, Rick Treitman, Jen Vanek, Shaun Wallace, Benjamin Wolfe

Readability is on the cusp of a revolution. Fixed text is becoming fluid as a proliferation of digital reading devices rewrite what a document can do. As past constraints make way for more flexible opportunities, there is great need to understand how reading formats can be tuned to the situation and the individual. We aim to provide a firm foundation for readability research, a comprehensive framework for modern, multi-disciplinary readability research. Readability refers to aspects of visual information design which impact information flow from the page to the reader. Readability can be enhanced by changes to the set of typographical characteristics of a text. These aspects can be modified on-demand, instantly improving the ease with which a reader can process and derive meaning from text. We call on a multi-disciplinary research community to take up these challenges to elevate reading outcomes and provide the tools to do so effectively.

Keywords: reading, text, document, information processing, typography

1. Introduction

Readability (Fig. 1) is a growing focus because reading has fundamentally changed (Fig. 2). The amount of reading content available today is more than has ever existed, and it grows at an ever-increasing rate. The pressure to ingest vast quantities of information quickly has never been greater. Additionally, reading content is distributed across highly variable publishing platforms, which has changed what and how we read. The wider commercialization of smartphones, e-books, and lightweight laptops over the last 15 years have diversified where and when we read. Now more than ever, improving the modern reading experience has enormous practical and societal significance.

Modern reading is digital, and this has introduced a fundamental paradigm shift. To date, authors, publishers, and designers have been in control of the reading experience. This is no longer the case as evidenced by the multitude of device types, screen qualities, and software settings available to the reader. Depending on the technologies we use, we - the readers - can gain control over font size, screen polarity, spacing, font choice, and other formatting choices. Amazon's Kindle, Apple's iBooks, Microsoft's Immersive Reader, Adobe's Liquid Mode, and modern web browsers all provide some of these controls. Because our devices are always with us, we now grab bits of reading here and there (Wolf, 2018): some of us check social media, others their news feeds, and still others their ebooks, news apps, or PDFs for class or the next meeting. Increasingly, we read in interludes, and with frequent interruptions, a considerably different form of reading than sitting down at length with a novel or newspaper. Existing research on reading has concentrated on fixed-format pages - either books or electronic facsimiles of books like PDFs. Recent studies indicate that we may be on the cusp of dramatically changing the way people read - making it much easier for struggling readers to read and for good readers to read even more efficiently by changing and, more significantly, personalizing the readability of the text. Indeed, the authors have seen children, both good and struggling readers, become more fluent with customized text formats (Crowley & Jordan, 2019a; Crowley & Jordan, 2019b) and adult readers add as much as 10 pages an hour when optimizing digital text for personalized reading (Wallace et al., 2020a; Wallace et al., 2020b).

Readability encapsulates those properties of a document that determine the ease and success with which individual readers decipher, process, and make meaning of the text read. While this may involve aspects of the document's content, structure, or layout more generally, our focus in this paper is on the typographical features of the text, which includes font choice, size, spacing, and related attributes. Many of the methods discussed here may nevertheless apply to studies of document readability more generally. By moving away from printed, and therefore fixed, text, readability is being fundamentally changed by digital text and the customization options that come with it. Readers - young and old, proficient and struggling - all stand to benefit immensely from having control over the format of the text that they read. Rather than a one-size-fits all, there is an opportunity to individuate for the reader and the reading context.

This new direction is a green field and needs new methodologies, tools, and approaches. The authors have been building these tools and methods over the last few years and will use this paper to share them with the greater interdisciplinary research community. In this pivotal moment, the future of readability is in the hands of a small group of present-day stakeholders.

This paper is intended as a practical foundational resource for growing the readability stakeholder community. The subject matter requires an integrated interdisciplinary approach, and correspondingly, the authors of this paper include vision scientists, technology experts, educators, designers, typographers, and data scientists; together, we represent voices from academia, tech industry, and non-profit institutions.

This paper is written for anyone interested in pushing the state of readability research: scientists, practitioners, educators, tech companies, type designers, policymakers, and engineers. Our goal is to share our methods and tools with the greater community in hopes that together we can advance the state of the research and make readability better for all.

... See the full paper on arXiv here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.09615

About arXiv: arXiv® is a curated research-sharing platform open to anyone. As a pioneer in digital open access, arXiv.org now hosts nearly two million scholarly articles in eight subject areas, curated by our strong community of volunteer moderators. arXiv offers researchers a broad range of services: article submission, compilation, production, retrieval, search and discovery, web distribution for human readers, and API access for machines, together with content curation and preservation. Our emphasis on openness, collaboration, and scholarship provide the strong foundation on which arXiv thrives.

Operations are maintained by the arXiv Leadership Team and arXiv staff at Cornell University.

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"Readability Research: An Interdisciplinary Approach" is now available on arXiv, an archival preprint service. Twenty-eight different authors - from around the world and across many disciplines - collaborated to author a 60+ page intro to Readability research toward the goal of accelerating best practices and methodologies.

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Visual Crowding in Reading, Sofie Beier, 2022 - Skoll World Forum (Building Better Reading)

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Visual Crowding in Reading, Sofie Beier, 2022 - Skoll World Forum (Building Better Reading)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DpjjAcqOSg

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Building Better Reading, Skoll World Forum 2022 | Sofie Beier, Danish Academy of Fine Arts

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJE8wkNif5I&t=2s

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Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography [HMCT]

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DETI Keynote—Dave Crossland: “The Use of Variable Fonts in Google's Branding Typography”

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Accessibility for dyslexia – Maja Benke, WordCamp Europe 2022

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Accessibility for dyslexia – Maja Benke, WordCamp Europe 2022

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What is the next thing about colour contrast?Vincent Sanchis, WordCamp Europe 2022

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What is the next thing about colour contrast?Vincent Sanchis, WordCamp Europe 2022

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The legibility of letters and words, Sofie Beier, 2016

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The legibility of letters and words, Sofie Beier, 2016

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAzFiyqNO4w

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Matilda: A typeface for children with low vision – Ann Bessemans, 2016

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Matilda: A typeface for children with low vision – Ann Bessemans, 2016

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Colours

Font Weight & Size

Results

While this app uses the APCA FONT LOOKUP TABLE, the APCA contrast colour codes are not implemented in this tool at this time apca-w3:0.1.2 was used for this checker. For more information on the APCA contrast algorithm, visit: www.myndex.com/APCA

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While this app uses the APCA FONT LOOKUP TABLE, the APCA contrast colour codes are not implemented in this tool at this time apca-w3:0.1.2 was used for this checker. For more information on the APCA contrast algorithm, visit: www.myndex.com/APCA

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Don't Believe The Type, 2021. Studio sulla presunta accessibilità di font che si definiscono tali

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Don't Believe The Type, 2021. Studio sulla presunta accessibilità di font che si definiscono tali

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https://www.deque.com/axe-con/sessions/dont-believe-the-type/

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Register for axe-con to see a recording of this session!

By registering for axe-con you'll get access to this recording and all sessions in our archive!

Details

Are “accessible” fonts actually as accessible as they claim? If not, what are the things we need to know when choosing a font that responds to different reader needs? This session will explore what dyslexia is, what cognitively happens when we read, and what elements of a typeface make a difference to how accessible it is, and to whom. Bruno, David, and Gareth have decades of experience between them. Bruno as a Typeface Designer, David as a Typographer, and Gareth as a UX Design/Accessibility expert. Together they spent over 3 years researching and steering the creation of BBC Reith family, the BBC’s corporate accessible typeface.

Speakers

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With "Fixation" you define the expression of the letter combinations. Choose a value from 1 to 5. 3 is defined as the base value.

With "Saccade" you define the visual jumps from Fixation to Fixation. Choose a value from 10 to 50. 10 is defined as the base value.

With "Letters" you define your personal selection of Fixation and Saccade. Your defined settings for Fixation and Saccade are used by the Bionic Reading® algorithm.

With "Syllables" the syllables of the word are used as a basis for the Fixation. For monosyllabic words, your Fixation setting is taken into account.

With "Advanced Settings" you decide which part of speech the Bionic Reading® algorithm should consider. Maybe you only want to read nouns, verbs and adjectives with Bionic Reading®. It's your decision.

With "Opacity" you define the visibility of your Fixation. You can also adjust the visibility of the remaining letters individually to your needs. Choose a value from 100 to 0. 100 is defined as the base.

With "Details" you refine your individual Bionic Reading reading mode. Choose your preferred "Font" and "Font Size" and adjust the "Line Height". With "Letter Spacing" you change the space between the letters and with "Column Width" you give your text the right frame.

With "Display" you can change the color and opacity for the text and background of your Bionic Reading® Reader. Of course you can choose between light mode and dark mode. Just try it.

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6 Apps. Free or Premium. Bionic Reading® for Apple iOS and macOS, Google Android, Microsoft Windows, Google Chrome and Web. We offer you the free version "Discover" and the subscriptions "Premium" and "Premium Plus".

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Raccolta link dall'evento c/o lo Skoll World Forum 

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Raccolta link dall'evento c/o lo Skoll World Forum 

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https://padlet.com/ReadabilityMatters/4i80o0yn9vxn5gy2

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OpenDyslexic is a typeface designed against some common symptoms of dyslexia.
.

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EasyReading – EASYREADING FONT DYSLEXIA FRIENDLY

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Making the web more beautiful, fast, and open through great typography

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https://brailleinstitute.org/freefont

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Download the Atkinson Hyperlegible Font | Braille Institute

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A new typeface - greater legibility and readability for low vision readers Atkinson Hyperlegible font is named after Braille Institute founder, J. Robert Atkinson. What makes it different from traditional typography design is that it focuses on letterform distinction to increase character recognition, ultimately improving readability.

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http://risorseonline.erickson.it/settimana-dislessia-lo-sai-che/index.html

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Dal 7 al 13 ottobre torna la campagna lanciata nel 2018 da Erickson e Lo sai che...?", Associazione Italiana Dislessia con l'obiettivo di sensibilizzare e approfondire la conoscenza sulla dislessia e sugli altri disturbi specifici di apprendimento. ulcro della campagna il manifesto illustrato da Daniela Tieni basato sulla parola "particolare ", ad indicare il peculiare modo di apprendere delle persone con DSA.

Lo sai che... la dislessia è un PARTICOLARE modo di apprendere?

Scoprite insieme ai bambini le loro attitudini. Il successo formativo è possibile per tutti.

Sostenete l'acquisizione delle informazioni utilizzando immagini e parole chiave, in questo modo alleggerirete la necessità di leggere per accedere ai contenuti.

Rispetto della modalità di apprendere

Scoprite il canale preferenziale che ogni bambino usa per apprendere e utilizzatelo tutte le volte che potete.

Utilizzate font senza fronzoli e aumentate l'interlinea per rendere la lettura più semplice e accessibile.

Aiutate i bambini a vedere le differenze come una ricchezza e ad apprezzare le proprie caratteristiche. Tutti siamo diversi e possiamo apprendere al meglio, attraverso strategie specifiche.

Compensate la fatica dei bambini con DSA con strumenti adatti, ma non togliete loro la possibilità di trarre soddisfazione dall'aver raggiunto un traguardo scolastico grazie all'impegno profuso.

Guidate i bambini nel darsi obiettivi possibili e nel raggiungerli in autonomia.

Lasciare tempo per altro

I bambini restano bambini e hanno bisogno di un po' di tempo per fare quello che preferiscono.

Valorizzate i punti di forza dei bambini e aiutateli a scoprire le loro aree di competenza.

Rielaborare le informazioni scritte

Aiutate i bambini a ricavare le informazioni principali da un testo e a rielaborarle secondo il loro stile di apprendimento: gli sforzi diventeranno più fruttuosi.

Non stigmatizzate l'errore ma guardatelo come un'opportunità per capire come aiutare meglio quel bambino.
Scarica il poster GLI INCONTRI A TRENTO E ROMA
Gli incontri, dal titolo (Erickson), Durante l'incontro ci sarà possibile mettersi in gioco con un breve esperimento intitolato "Lo sai che... la dislessia è un particolare modo di apprendere?" sono in programma mercoledì 9 ottobre. Nella sede Erickson di Roma (ore 18.30) Nicoletta Perini Antonella Trentin (presidente AID-sezione Roma) e Mettiamoci nei panni di... Un laboratorio esperienziale realizzato in collaborazione con Luana Astore e Fabiana Illiano (Telos Edizioni). Marco Romano (referente dei genitori dell'AID - sezione di Roma) proporranno una riflessione su questo "particolare modo di apprendere". Un'occasione per approfondire questo disturbo, in linea con il titolo della Settimana Nazionale 2019: "Diversi e Uguali: promuoviamo l'equità". Le persone con DSA, infatti, hanno un diverso modo di apprendere o di svolgere il proprio lavoro, ma hanno lo stesso diritto di poterlo fare rispetto a chi non ha necessità di utilizzare i loro stessi strumenti.

Nella sede Erickson di Trento (9 ottobre, ore 18) è in programma un incontro con Dario Ianes (Libera Università di Bolzano e co-fondatore Erickson), Paola Venuti (Psicologia e Scienze cognitive dell'Università di Trento) e Sergio Messina (presidente nazionale dell'Associazione Italiana Dislessia) che insieme si confronteranno sulle strategie più efficaci da utilizzare in classe e a casa.
... E IN FUTURO
Le iniziative di divulgazione e sensibilizzazione continuano anche online con una serie di attività social. E non solo. La collaborazione tra Erickson e AID vedrà i suoi frutti anche in primavera. È partito infatti un nuovo progetto editoriale, frutto della collaborazione tra l'Associazione Italiana Dislessia ed Erickson, con l'obiettivo di supportare gli insegnanti nella loro attività didattica. Una serie di volumi operativisulle singole discipline scolastiche con 10 strategie attive essenziali per lo studente con DSA, ma utili anche a tutta la classe.

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Dal 7 al 13 ottobre torna la campagna lanciata nel 2018 da Erickson e Lo sai che...?", Associazione Italiana Dislessia con l'obiettivo di sensibilizzare e approfondire la conoscenza sulla dislessia e sugli altri disturbi specifici di apprendimento. ulcro della campagna il manifesto illustrato da Daniela Tieni basato sulla parola "particolare ", ad indicare il peculiare modo di apprendere delle persone con DSA.

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Making the web more beautiful, fast, and open through great typography

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For more than 00 years the U.S. Department of Education has found that nearly 00% of the population experiences some reading difficulty.

I read for a living - it's basically been exhausting. It's a relief to be able to read without stress, without my eyes getting tired.

- Lise, 37, Tech Business Strategist

Recently, I started using LEXEND to study my Spanish vocabulary list and raised my Spanish grade from a D to a B in just a few weeks.

- Travis, 16, High School Sophomore

With Lexend, my student was reading and loving it. Her participation in the classroom has increased to the point where I have to remind her to "be quiet" in class. Her self-esteem has improved measurably and she is obviously proud of what she is now able to do.

- Mrs. C, 1st Grade Teacher, California

My name is Commander Smith and the spaceship that I command has been exploring the planet known as Earth for almost a year. We have discovered that Earth is very different from our planet. Our next job was to explore the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. These states make up the Southwest region.

First, we had to backtrack a little and fly east to Texas. This is a huge state- the map showed that it was more than seven hundred miles wide. Later we found out that Texas is the second largest state in size, after Alaska. It is also the second largest state in population, after California. We certainly saw a lot of really big things in Texas- big cities, big oil fields, and big ranches. In fact, we found out that there is a ranch in Texas that is bigger than the whole state of Rhode Island! Texas raises more cattle than any other state. The cowboy, a person who takes care of the cattle, is a symbol of Texas. In the late 1800s, Texas cowboys drove the cattle hundreds of miles to market in the northern states.

It was hard, dangerous, adventurous work, so many people thought of cowboys as heroes. Over time, the cattle ranches changed so that there was less need for cowboys. Today, there are not as many cowboys in

Texas. There are, however, many Texans who still dress like cowboys. They wear cowboy boots and a kind of tall cowboy hat they call a ten- gallon- hat because it looks as if it could hold that much water. Another symbol of Texas is the oil well. Texas produces more oil than any other state. Oil was first discovered near the city of Houston in the early 1900s.

Today, Houston is the largest city in Texas. The American space program has one of its largest workplaces there. One man told us that Houston was the first word spoken on the moon. He explained that when an American became the first human to land on the moon on July 20, 1969. The first thing he did was radio back to Houston. The United States was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. There have been six manned U. S. landings and numerous unmanned landings. To date, the United States is the only country to have successfully conducted manned missions to the Moon, with the last one in December 1972.

What makes a good reader?

There is a consensus among researchers and educators that reading fluency is one of the defining characteristics of good readers, and a lack of fluency is a common characteristic of poor readers.

This is important - because it means we're approaching this problem from an already established perspective, something that educators have been using for decades.

Differences in reading fluency not only distinguish good readers from poor, but a lack of reading fluency is also a reliable predictor of reading comprehension problems.

Once struggling readers learn the relationship between sounds and letters, their lack of fluency emerges as the next hurdle they face on their way to reading proficiency.

This lack of fluent reading is a problem for poor readers because they tend to read in a labored, disconnected fashion - with a focus on decoding at the word level that makes comprehension of the text difficult, if not impossible.

Fluency is measured in Words Correct Per Minute.

A student reads a story with 409 words in 4m 6s. She made 0 errors. To determine WCPM (Words Correct Per Minute):

1. Count the total number of words.

2. Count the number of mistakes.

3. Take the number of words minus the number of mistakes = number of words read correctly.
409 words - 0 mistakes = 409 correct words

4. Convert the time it took to read the passage to seconds.
4m 6s to read = 245.99999999999997s

5. Convert the number of seconds to a decimal by dividing the number of seconds by 60. This is the total reading time.
245.99999999999997s / 60 = 4.1 total reading time

6. Divide the number of words read correctly by the total reading time in decimal form.
409 / 4.1 = 100 Words Correct per Minute (WCPM)

What if we could turn it around... with typography?

In 1999, as an educational therapist, Dr. Bonnie Shaver-Troup, working with clients, began observing that reading issues masked the individual's true capability and intelligence.

In 2000, Bonnie theorized that reading performance would improve through use of:

1. A sans-serif font to reduce cognitive noise

2. Expanded scaling to improve potential for character recognition

3. Hyper-expansion of character spacing, which creates a greater lag time and reduces potential crowding and masking effects

These changes led to the development of seven specially-designed fonts, which create an immediate improvement in reading performance.

This is where Lexend was formed.

A variable font empirically shown to significantly improve reading-proficiency.

Dr. Bonnie Shaver-Troup, utilizing her theory and the LEXEND beta font designs, worked with Google to formulate an advanced set of typographic variables to coordinate with one simple idea:

A font, much like the prescription in a pair of eyeglasses, should change based on the reader's unique needs.

Combining some of the newest technology in font software and an educated history in professional type design, Lexend pulls the most important typographic factors in reading-proficiency into a variable font that was designed specifically to fluctuate based on a reader's Words Correct per Minute score - a typographic system that could be changed to make the words more readable, based on who's reading them.

The Demonstration of Effectiveness

20 third graders, eight males and twelve females, read for one minute in five fonts.

All text was set at 16pt and the reading materials were two grade levels above the participants current grade level to ensure the typography was being measured, rather than reading competency.

Each student read out loud a passage set in a control of Times New Roman, then four of the Lexend Series - Deca, Exa, Giga, and Mega.

My name is Commander Smith and the spaceship that I command has been exploring the planet known as Earth for almost a year. We have discovered that Earth is very different from our planet. Our next job was to explore the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. These states make up the Southwest region.

First, we had to backtrack a little and fly east to Texas. This is a huge state- the map showed that it was more than seven hundred miles wide. Later we found out that Texas is the second largest state in size, after Alaska. It is also the second largest state in population, after California. We certainly saw a lot of really big things in Texas- big cities, big oil fields, and big ranches. In fact, we found out that there is a ranch in Texas that is bigger than the whole state of Rhode Island! Texas raises more cattle than any other state. The cowboy, a person who takes care of the cattle, is a symbol of Texas. In the late 1800s, Texas cowboys drove the cattle hundreds of miles to market in the northern states.

It was hard, dangerous, adventurous work, so many people thought of cowboys as heroes. Over time, the cattle ranches changed so that there was less need for cowboys. Today, there are not as many cowboys in

Texas. There are, however, many Texans who still dress like cowboys. They wear cowboy boots and a kind of tall cowboy hat they call a ten- gallon- hat because it looks as if it could hold that much water. Another symbol of Texas is the oil well. Texas produces more oil than any other state. Oil was first discovered near the city of Houston in the early 1900s.

Today, Houston is the largest city in Texas. The American space program has one of its largest workplaces there. One man told us that Houston was the first word spoken on the moon. He explained that when an American became the first human to land on the moon on July 20, 1969. The first thing he did was radio back to Houston. The United States was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. There have been six manned U. S. landings and numerous unmanned landings. To date, the United States is the only country to have successfully conducted manned missions to the Moon, with the last one in December 1972.

The p value in this experiment (0.014) says the chance of the results presented happening by random was 1.4%. In statistics, a result is considered significant if it's below 5%.

Lexend has been discussed in two Stanford labs, at HP & Microsoft, was listed on Apple K-12 Assistive Technology from 2003-2005, has recently been referenced in research and patents by Adobe, and is available both on Google Fonts & as an open-source download.

The Valuable Virtues of Variable Font Technology

As the study demonstrates, while the Lexend series were beneficial to a large sample of students, no one setting worked best for all students. Diverse readers call for diverse axis settings just like every individual person requires their own individual eyeglass prescription.

Eyeglass prescriptions are not six strict settings. There are more granular settings possible.

Variable font technology allows for continuous selection of the Lexend Series to find the specific setting for an individual student.

Variable Width + Bounding Box Variable Font Settings for CSS
h1, p { font-variation-settings: 'LXND' 0; }

My name is Commander Smith and the spaceship that I command has been exploring the planet known as Earth for almost a year. We have discovered that Earth is very different from our planet. Our next job was to explore the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. These states make up the Southwest region.

First, we had to backtrack a little and fly east to Texas. This is a huge state- the map showed that it was more than seven hundred miles wide. Later we found out that Texas is the second largest state in size, after Alaska. It is also the second largest state in population, after California. We certainly saw a lot of really big things in Texas- big cities, big oil fields, and big ranches. In fact, we found out that there is a ranch in Texas that is bigger than the whole state of Rhode Island! Texas raises more cattle than any other state. The cowboy, a person who takes care of the cattle, is a symbol of Texas. In the late 1800s, Texas cowboys drove the cattle hundreds of miles to market in the northern states.

It was hard, dangerous, adventurous work, so many people thought of cowboys as heroes. Over time, the cattle ranches changed so that there was less need for cowboys. Today, there are not as many cowboys in

Texas. There are, however, many Texans who still dress like cowboys. They wear cowboy boots and a kind of tall cowboy hat they call a ten- gallon- hat because it looks as if it could hold that much water. Another symbol of Texas is the oil well. Texas produces more oil than any other state. Oil was first discovered near the city of Houston in the early 1900s.

Today, Houston is the largest city in Texas. The American space program has one of its largest workplaces there. One man told us that Houston was the first word spoken on the moon. He explained that when an American became the first human to land on the moon on July 20, 1969. The first thing he did was radio back to Houston. The United States was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. There have been six manned U. S. landings and numerous unmanned landings. To date, the United States is the only country to have successfully conducted manned missions to the Moon, with the last one in December 1972.

Lexend History

Founded in 2000, LEXEND came about from a desire to make reading easier for everyone. As an Educational Therapist, Bonnie Shaver-Troup, EdD, observed that reading issues masked the individual's true capability and intelligence. She theorized that these issues were a sensitivity to typographical factors and began manipulating multiple text factors to find a match between text format and an individual's optimized visual processing capabilities.

After careful research and years of testing LEXEND beta fonts, Bonnie was able to determine that while traditional approaches to reading issues focused on cognitive-based solutions, perception-based solutions were faster and more efficient in helping improve reading performance and cognition.

In 2017 Bonnie began working with Google to design an online variable-font solution that would ultimately give the reader complete control over their own reading experience and improve retention and comprehension.

What began as a seed in the home office of an educational therapist has become a world-class reading solution available to English-language readers across the world.

Download Lexend for free - and start changing the way the world reads today.

Enter your name & email below to get a download link, a few awesome tips on how best to utilize this incredible resource, and heads-up when new versions of Lexend are improved and updated.

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Lexend - Change the way the world reads.

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I read for a living - it's basically been exhausting. It's a relief to be able to read without stress, without my eyes getting tired. - Lise, 37, Tech Business Strategist Recently, I started using LEXEND to study my Spanish vocabulary list and raised my Spanish grade from a D to a B in just a few weeks.