Typefaces and Fonts
Article Contents
Introduction
Typefaces are groups of designed text characters, such as Arial, Helvetica, and Times New Roman. Fonts are sub-sets of typefaces that have a consistent appearance, such as a 14 point and bold font in the Arial typeface. Typography—how typefaces and fonts present text—is very impactful on reading, which is a core component of visual accessibility.
This article primarily focuses on typefaces and fonts. To learn more about other aspects of typography and layout, please see Text/Typographical Layout.
Typeface Readability
When reading text, most people do not read or parse individual characters or even words. Instead, the eye quickly scans through text and parses patterns and groups of characters (typically 6-9 characters at a time) which are nearly instantaneously converted into meaning by the human brain. This subconscious process allows us to read and understand text content very quickly with high degrees of understanding, even though we aren’t even seeing or thinking of characters and words.
It is only when characters or words are unfamiliar or introduce a barrier to that direct pattern-to-meaning process that we must pause to more closely examine or process characters or [...]