The Relative Suitability of Four Dot--Matrix Sizes for Text Presentation on Color Television Screens

Abstract

Characters with four dot--matrix sizes (5 x 7, 7 x 9, 9 x 13, and 11 x 15) were tested as to their suitability for the presentation of characters on standard home color television sets. Subjects performed five different tasks and rated the various character sizes. Their qualitative performance for all tasks was the same with each of the different character sizes; the amount of time necessary to complete the tasks, however, varied up to more than 20%. In all tasks, the worst performance was obtained with the smallest character size. Since the 9- x -13 character size was rated significantly better than the smaller character sizes, we recommend that this size be used for text display on color television screens.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Beldie, L. P. Bestimmung optimaler Zeichen und Hinter--grundleuchtdichten für fünf verschiedene Zeichcnsátze. Berlin: Heinrich--Hertz--Institut, 4. Zwishchenbericht TK 135, 1981.

Cakir, A. , Hart, D. J. and Stewart, T. F. M. The VDT manual. Darmstadt: IFRA, 1979.

CCIR . Method for subjective assessment of the quality of television pictures. Geneva: Author, Recommendation 500, 1974.

Deutsches Institut für Normung . Display work places, Part I: Character shapes. Berlin: Author, DIN 66234, 1980.

Eisenbeis, M. Die Entwicklung des Programms MOSAIK für das System Bildschirmtext der Bundespost. Form, 1979, 87, 14–19.

Giddings, B. J. Alpha--numerics for raster displays. Ergonomics, 1972, 15, 65–72.

Huddleston, H. F. An evaluation of alphanumerics for a 5 x 7 matrix display. Loughborough, England: IEEE, Conference Publication 80, 1971, 145–147.

Huddleston, H. F. A comparison of two 7 x 9 matrix alphanumeric designs for TV displays. Applied Ergonomics, 1974, 5(2), 81–83.

Maddox, M. E. , Burnett, J. T., and Gutmann, J. G. Font comparisons for 5 x 7 dot--matrix characters. Human Factors, 1977, 19, 89–93.

10.

Muter, P. , Latræmouille, S. A. , Treurniet, W. C. , and Beam, P. Extended reading of continuous text on television screen. Human Factors, 1982, 24, 501–508.

11.

Shurtleff, D. A. Legibility research, Proceedings of the Society for Information Display, 1974, 15(2), 41–51.

12.

Smith, S. L. Letter size and legibility. Human Factors, 1979, 21, 661–670.

13.

Treurniet, W. C. Display of text on television. Ottawa: Department of Communications. CRC Technical Note No. 705--E, May, 1981.

14.

Vartabedian, A. G. The effects of letter size, case and generation method on CRT search time. Human Factors, 1971, 13, 363–368.

15.

Vartabedian, A. G. Developing a graphic set for cathode ray tube display using a 7 x 9 dot pattern. Applied Egonomics, 1973, 4(1), 11–16.

16.

Zimmerman, R. Gestaltung von Mensch--Maschine--Kom-munikationssystemen. Regelungstechnische Praxis, 1976, 9–14 and 45–49.