CRT Typeface Design and Evaluation

Abstract

Reading text from a video display screen is a relatively new modality of human communication. This new technology presents advantages and limitations never considered in the design of typefaces for printed communication. It is well known that people read faster from printed text than from a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT). This paper discusses some of the current work to improve CRT readability. Specifically, we have developed software to be used by a typography designer to design anti-aliased (or “grayscale”) CRT typefaces. A new anti-aliased typeface was designed and tested for readability. It was found that readability was significantly improved with this new typeface. This paper describes some of our recent work in this area. The typeface design software and examples of text rendered in a new typeface will be demonstrated on an analog color display.

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^*The Brown Corpus Text can be purchased from Bergen University, POB 53, N-5014, Bergen, Norway, attention Mrs. Torill, Revheim. Price will vary depending upon the media preferred and item selected.