Abstract
This paper aims to identify the appropriateness of various parameters identified previously to define legibility in the context of Latin script done for the context of Indic typefaces like Bengali and Devanagari. The analysis is based on anatomical features, gridlines, letter binding, letter support, direction of stroke, stroke density, and variance. The paper also discusses various challenges of Indic scripts in terms of letter identification with respect to visibility and familiarity. Finally, various design parameters for identification are proposed for measurement of legibility of Bengali and Devanagari. The insight of the paper is to make type designers and researchers aware of effective design parameters that are necessary to understand during the design of Indic typeface.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Ligatures are the juxtaposed single glyph of two or more letters in case of Latin. It consciously designs to eliminate the ‘crowding’ of two or more like ‘fi’, ‘ffi’ or ‘ffl’.
References
Cheng, K.: Designing Type. Laurence King Publishing Ltd., London (2005)
Mohanty, S.K.: The formulation of parameters for type design of indian scripts based on calligraphic studies. Artistic Imaging Digit. Typography 1357, 157–166 (1998)
Coles, S.: The Anatomy of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Typefaces. Harper Collins Publisher, New York (2012)
Lund, O.: Knowledge Construction in Typography: The Case of Legibility Research and the Legibility of Sans Serif Typefaces. Ph.D. thesis, University of Reading, Reading (1999)
Beier, S.: Typeface legibility: towards defining familiarity. Ph.D. thesis, Royal College of Art, London (2009)
Chahine, N.: Reading Arabic: legibility studies for the Arabic script. Ph.D. thesis, University of Leiden, Leiden (2012)
Gaultney, V.: Balancing Typeface Legibility and Economy: Practical Techniques for the Type Designer. http://www-01.sil.org/~gaultney/BalanLegEcon.pdf (2000) (Visited on 14/03/2014)
Tracy, W.: Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design. Gordon Fraser, London (1986)
Dobres, J., Chahine, N., Reimer, B., Gould, D., Mehler, B., Coughlin, J. F.: Utilising psychophysical techniques to investigate the effects of age, typeface design, size and display polarity on glance legibility, Ergonomics, pp. 1–15 (2016)
Zhang, Y.: The Effects of Font Design Characteristics on Font Legibility. Montreal, Canada (2006)
Beier, S.: Legibility Investigation: Towards Controlling Typeface Variables, in Praxis and Poetics: Research Through Design 2013. Newcastle, UK (2013)
Frutiger, A.: Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning, London: Studio Edition: an imprint of Bestseller Publications Ltd. (1989)
Ross, F.G.E., Shaw, G.: Non-Latin Scripts: From Metal to Digital Type. St. Bridge Library, London (2012)
Pelli, D.G., Burns, C.W., Farell, B., Moore-Page, D.C.: Feature detection and letter identification. Vision Res. 46(28), 4646–4674 (2006)
Pelli, D.G., Majaj, N.J., Raizman, N., Christian, C.J., Edward, K., Palomares, M.C.: Grouping in object recognition: the role of a Gestalt law in letter identification. Cogn. Neuropsychol. 26, 36–49 (2006)
Larson, K.: The Science of Word Recognition, Advanced Reading Technology, Microsoft Corporation. https://www.microsoft.com/typography/ctfonts/WordRecognition.aspx (Visited on 12/03/2014)
Carter, R., Day, B., Meggs, P.: Typographic Design: Form and Communication, 3rd edn. Wiley, New Jersey (2002)
Ross, F.G.E.: The Printed Bengali Character and Its Evolution, 2nd edn. Shishu Sahitya Samsad Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata (2009)
Pelli, D.G., Palomares, M., Majaj, N.J.: Crowding is unlike ordinary masking: distinguishing feature integration from detection. J. Vision 4, 1136–1169 (2004)
Naik, B.S.: Typography of Devanagari, vol. 1. Directorate of Language, Bombay (1971)
Ross, F.G.E.: Digital typeface design and font development for twenty-first century Bangla Language processing. In: Karim, M.A., Kaykobad, M., Murshed, M. (eds.) Technical Challenges and Design Issues in Bangla Language Processing, pp. 1–15. IGI Global, Hershey, PA (2013)
Dyson, M.C., Scott, C.: Characterizing typographic expertise: do we process typefaces like faces? Vis. Cogn. 20(9), 1082–1094 (2012)
Fiset, D., Blais, C., Ethier-Majcher, C., Arguin, M., Bub, D., Gosselin, F.: Features for identification of uppercase and lowercase letters. Psychol. Sci. 19(11), 1167–1168 (2008)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Chandra, S., Bokil, P., Udaya Kumar, D. (2017). Legibility: Same for All Scripts!. In: Chakrabarti, A., Chakrabarti, D. (eds) Research into Design for Communities, Volume 2. ICoRD 2017. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 66. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3521-0_71
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3521-0_71
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-3520-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-3521-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)