Legibility of Condensed Perceptually-Tuned Grayscale Fonts

We analyze the quality of condensed text on LCD displays, generated with unhinted and hinted bilevel characters, with traditional anti-aliased and with perceptually-tuned grayscale characters. Hinted bi-level characters and perceptually-tuned grayscale characters improve the quality of displayed small size characters (8pt, 6pt) up to a line condensation factor of 80%. At higher condensation factors, the text becomes partly illegible. In such situations, traditional anti-aliased grayscale character seems to be the most robust variant. We explore the utility of perceptually-tuned grayscale fonts for improving the legibility of condensed text. A small advantage was found for text searching, compared to bilevel fonts. This advantage is consistent with human vision models applied to reading.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: EP
• Authors: Robert A. Morris, Roger D. Hersch, A. Coimbra
• Keywords: Condensation Factors, Electronic Publishing, EP 1998, Grayscale Character, Perceptually-tuned Grayscale Characters