What the font?
Image: modrnoartistique la lettre p23 via PhotoPin (licence)
When the physicist announcing the possible discovery of the Higgs boson last July used the font Comic Sans in her presentation, she unwittingly became a combatant in the war against this widely derided typeface. But in choosing Comic Sans, perhaps Fabiola Gianotti was deliberately drawing on recent studies that suggest fonts that are harder to read actually help us retain information.
As reported in New Scientist, Gianotti’s choice of font stirred the passions of physicists and typographers alike (it was even suggested by one commentator that it was the equivalent of ‘showing up to a funeral in a Hawaiian shirt’). However, the article goes on to cite a number of studies that suggest that while more ornate fonts may be harder to read, the extra level of concentration required can result in greater comprehension of the text.
And just as Andrew’s article from December showed that metaphors could be used to influence people’s responses, a University of Illinois study revealed that people reading fake documents for a mock trial were actually more likely to disregard irrelevant information when these documents were presented in more awkward-to-read fonts.
So should you dump Ariel or Times New Roman as your font of choice, and opt for something like Brush Script or Mistral? Probably not. While subtle differences in fonts may influence the level of comprehension, they can also influence what your intended audience actually reads in the first place. Studies also found that people reading a recipe were more likely to conclude the dish would take longer and require a higher level of skill when printed in Mistral rather than Arial.
Designers have long understood the importance of typography to the user experience. Steve Jobs credited the calligraphy classes he took after dropping out of college as the inspiration for the typefaces used on the first Macintosh computers. He argued that as this approach was then copied in the Windows operating system, leading to a design focus on fonts for computers ever since.
Then where does this all leave Comic Sans? As one typography expert noted, Comic Sans is probably best retained ‘for children’s books and fast-food menus’.
