Typography and Design can Get Your Message Across—or Get in the Way

Here are some highlights of Colin Wheildon’s Research on “How Typography and Design can get your Message Across—or get in the Way”

• Headlines set in all-capital letters are up to 37% less readable than those using lower-case type.

• Black headlines are understood by nearly four times as many readers as headlines set in color.

• Slightly condensed headline type—between 70% and 90% of natural width—is easiest to read.

• Headlines that end with a period probably reduce readership.

• Body Copy set in serif type is more than five times likelier to be comprehended than copy set in a sans-serif face.

• Black text will be understood by seven times as many readers as text set in color.

• Boldface text will cut reader comprehension by more than 50%.

• White text on any background color will lose practically all readers.

• Surprinting black text on a gray background will attract readers, but their comprehension will suffer if the background strength exceeds 10%.

• Justified text pays off handsomely. Compared to ragged-right text, almost twice as many readers will understand it. Seven times as many readers compared to ragged-left copy.

• Text Measure strongly affects readability. Wheildon’s research showed that 38% of readers found text set at more than 60 characters to the line hard to read. And 87% had trouble with lines of less than 20 characters.

• Subheads, especially in long copy blocks, were found useful by 78% of the readers Wheildon studied.

• Optimum type sizes according to Wheildon’s research are in the range of 10 point on an 11-point body to 12 point on a 14-point body. About 75% of people found those sizes easiest to read.

• Color generally increases the cost of an advertisement by 20%—or somewhat more—but 63% more people notice the ad.

• Photographs were recalled more clearly than illustrations by more than half the people Wheildon studied.