Why is Reading Slower from CRT Displays than from Paper

Abstract

Experiments, including our own (Gould et al., 1984; 1986), have shown that people read more slowly from CRT displays than from paper. A series of experiments shows that the explanation centers on the image quality of the characters. Reading speeds, equivalent to those on paper, have been found for CRT displays containing character fonts that resemble those on paper (rather than dot matrix fonts, for example), that have a polarity of dark characters on a light background, that are anti-aliased (i.e., contain grey level), and that are shown on displays with relatively high resolution (e.g., 1000 × 800).