Typography That Talks: Making Your Message Readable

How you present your message can make a huge difference in whether people understand it or tune out. Colin Wheildon’s Research on “How Typography and Design can get your Message Across—or get in the Way” shows that typography and design choices directly affect readability and comprehension and are still relevant today. Small adjustments in type, color, and layout can dramatically improve how your audience absorbs information.

Headlines and Body Copy

Headlines set in all-capital letters are up to 37 percent 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 percent 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 can cut reader comprehension by more than 50 percent. White text on any background color will lose practically all readers. Surprinting black text on a gray background can attract readers, but comprehension suffers if the background strength exceeds 10 percent.

Justified text pays off handsomely. Compared to ragged-right text, almost twice as many readers will understand it, and compared to ragged-left copy, seven times as many readers comprehend the content. Text measure strongly affects readability. Lines with more than 60 characters are hard for 38 percent of readers to process, while lines of less than 20 characters cause trouble for 87 percent of readers. Subheads, especially in long copy blocks, were found useful by 78 percent of readers.

Optimal Design Choices

Type size also matters. For direct mail and flyers, use a body font size of 10-14 points for good readability, with headlines ranging from 18-28 points to draw attention. About 75 percent of people found those sizes easiest to read. Color can increase the cost of production by about 20 percent, but 63 percent more people notice the message when color is used. Photographs were recalled more clearly than illustrations by more than half the people studied.

By paying attention to these design and typography principles, you can ensure your message is not only seen but also understood and remembered.