Why are certain fonts more legible than others?

1. What makes a font more legible?
2. Why are some fonts easier to read than others?
3. Are some fonts more believable than others?
4. Why are some fonts hard to read?

What makes a font more legible?

When the spacing between characters in a font is more open, it will be more legible, because that reduces crowding. You can add more space with tracking, and small optical sizes have more spacing and other optimizations built-in to increase their legibility.

Why are some fonts easier to read than others?

Some of the better known factors are things like spacing, size, colors, and whether the font is decorative or utilitarian. But there's also serifs — the little tails that come off the letters and help guide the eye from one character to the next, but can make a font difficult to read if it's on a small scale.

Are some fonts more believable than others?

After polling approximately 45,000 unsuspecting readers on nytimes.com, Morris discovered that subjects were more likely to believe a statement when it was written in Baskerville than when it was written in Computer Modern, Georgia, Helvetica, Trebuchet, or Comic Sans.

Why are some fonts hard to read?

Fonts that are very elaborate or ornate can be difficult to read or see clearly. Even if you're using them sparingly as headings. This is because the letter shapes are not well-defined or regular in shape and size. These irregularities mean we have to pause to examine and process the characters.