Investigating typographic differentiation: italics are more subtle than bold for emphasis

Dyson, M. C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0920-4312 and Beier, S. (2016) Investigating typographic differentiation: italics are more subtle than bold for emphasis. Information Design Journal, 22 (1). pp. 3-18. ISSN 0142-5471 doi: 10.175/idj.22.1.02dys

Abstract/Summary

Text designers are likely to benefit from guidance on how to use typographic differentiation for emphasis. Three experiments use purposely-designed fonts to explore the size and nature of differences in the stylistic characteristics of fonts (weight, width, contrast, italic) which affect letter identification. Results indicate that words set in bold and expanded fonts, when alternated with words set in a Neutral test font, may impair performance, whereas changing to italic does not. Possible explanations are explored through measuring the physical and perceptual similarities of the test fonts.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/57479
Identification Number/DOI	10.175/idj.22.1.02dys
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Arts and Communication Design > Typography & Graphic Communication
Publisher	John Benjamins
Publisher Statement	This material is under copyright and the publisher should be contacted for permission to re-use or reprint the material in any form
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