SKIMMING ELECTRONIC NEWSPAPER HEADLINES - A STUDY OF TYPEFACE, POINT SIZE, SCREEN RESOLUTION, AND MONITOR SIZE

The effects of typeface, point size, screen resolution and monitor siz e on legibility were studied in a task-setting similar to skimming hea dlines in an electronic newspaper. Times New Roman, Book Antiqua, Cent ury Gothic, and Arial were the four typefaces used in the study. The p oint sizes used to present the headlines were 14 point, 20 point, and 24 point sizes. Two resolutions, 640 x 480 pixels and 1024 x 768 pixel s, were used in the study on two different monitor sizes-14'' (0.28 mm dot-pitch) and 19'' (0.31 mm dot-pitch). All the headlines used in th e study averaged 6 words in length with an average pixel width of 410 pixels when displayed at a logical dots-per-inch of 96 dpi under Micro soft Windows. The headlines were shown to 28 subjects using a brief-ex posure method. The results indicate the existence of interactions betw een all factors considered in this study. The results of further inves tigation into the simple interaction effects of typeface x point size as well as the simple, simple main effects of typeface are presented f or the 14'' monitor. The best overall legibility was achieved by the T imes New Roman and Arial typefaces. These two typefaces represent a se rif and a sans-serif typeface tuned specifically for the display of te xt on a computer screen. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.