Last Updated on September 13, 2024
Want Content That Stays Hot Among Customers? Learn More About Readability and Legibility!
If no one reads your content, does your brand even exist? The two most important aspects of content marketing involve readability and legibility. But what’s the difference between them?
If your web content is interesting, informative, and well-written but lacks a reader-friendly presentation, will it be able to attract the attention of the masses?
The chances of that are next to a bare minimum.
Writing all fancy and complicated words is easy, but conveying them to a broader audience is quite the task.
A sample of text can be presented in a million different ways; the way you choose to present it will define your brand, your website, and to some extent, your personality too!
Typography is essential for brand identity; people won’t go through endless piles of text or make an effort to gain acquaintance with your brand or website. It is YOU who must appeal to them in a swift manner.
So how does one grab the best attention of the audience in an instance? Via smart typography!
Two terms compile it in the best way; Readability & Legibility; even though it’s hard for an average person to differentiate between both, creating this difference boosts the site’s conversion rate.
And we’re here to elaborate on the differences between the two.
What is Readability?
Readability is about how easily your audience can read and understand the written copy on the website.
This depends upon the complexity and difficulty level of sentences and the different structures used. It includes headings, texts, quotes, and corrections. It is about arranging the whole text to make it easy to read.
Excellent readability comes from simpler words, sentences, and paragraphs that are easier to digest and explain to someone else.
Components of Readability
Let’s dig into different pieces of readability.
Type Size
The size of the font affects the readability significantly. It helps you get your message through via a convenient visual aid.
To make the title stand out, use larger lettering and a different font size than the text body. Such a style makes it easy for the reader to skim through and get the gist of the content.
You may have experienced that writing styles which are hard to read in small fonts are more easily understandable in larger fonts.
The size of the font also depends upon the target audience. Websites or texts aimed at children and elders should be in larger fonts as easy to comprehend. Books written in Times New Roman fonts are easy to read.
Type Case
Type case refers to capitalizing the words to make them more attention-grabbing and easy to read.
Capitalized sentences or phrases are so appealing that the subconscious mind reads them without voluntary consent!
Some readers prefer all the words written in capitals; this is usually done for titles. Others may choose to capitalize the first letters only. There are very few instances in which the entire text or sentence is capitalized.
Total capitalization is usually reserved for short phrases and headings.
Line Spacing
Words that seem to merge and intermingle with each other are a major no-blow for a reader. The reader might just choose to give up reading any further in that instant, and your message will not be able to get through.
Lines that are squeezed together are hard on the eyes. It is best to space your words out optimally to give the reader a soothing and welcoming reading experience. Wider spacing makes the lines stand out and easy to skim through.
Coloring & Contrast
By adding color, themes or contrast, the reflection of words becomes attractive to readers because they feel the words are alive and talking to them!
You can even color code your words to make them more inviting and easy to decipher. presenting darker colors on the foremost panel with contrasts of lighter shades in the background boosts the readability.
Line Length
It is important to limit your sentences. Limiting the words into a range of lines through margins makes the page less crowded and gives it a neat or sleek edge.
Using a collection of short sequences with open spacing is the ideal method to make your text reader-friendly. Sixty-five characters is an ideal consideration for line length.
What is Legibility?
Legibility pertains to the quality of the text, in particular, how clear the text appears to the reader. It’s about how easily a reader can recognize, distinguish and read individual characters in the text.
For example, if I am increasing the size of the font in a text passage, I will be enhancing or boosting the legibility for the reader.
Legibility is applied to text fonts that concern the design and shape of the letters. The legible text means the individual letters are easily differentiated from one another. It is the ability to distinguish one glyph from another when reading.
Components of Legibility
What fits in the puzzle of legibility is discussed below;
X-height
It refers to the height of the lowercase ‘x’ from its baseline. The taller the x-heights, the more legible typeface will be. It is about the proportion of lowercase text to capital letters. If the text is concise, it’s easier to distinguish the glyphs that hinder legibility. For example, the Playfair Display font has more x-height, making it more legible.
Width
Incredibly narrow glyphs are harder to distinguish and differentiate in proportion to their height. Typefaces should have substantial width supporting the readability.
For example, the font Verdana has more width than Arial.
Weight
Heavily weighted or bold text is more likely to attract the reader’s attention. However, one can not write an entire paragraph is bold figures.
That’s why bold and heavily weighted text is reserved for areas that require more of the reader’s attention. They serve as an alerting signal to the brain because weighted texts are easily separated from regular text. See what I mean?
Weight contributes to legibility, as well as contrast, font, and balance. Book fonts are created with specific coordinates in mind to create balanced scripts and titles.
Counters
These are spaces within the letters. It is also the white space within some of the letters, such as O, D, and Q. It refers to contrasting colors inside an ‘O’. Typefaces with very little space can reduce legibility.
Serifs
The serif category is divided into serif and sans serif; sans serif refers to ‘without serif’.
Serif means there is a projection on a letter that ends the stroke. Times New Roman and Old Style Fonts are used for serif styling. In sans serif, there is no projection style. Sans serif is rarely used in the US.
Styling of the serif category is majorly based on preference, the chronic nature of readers, and where they reside.
Design Traits
Unique designs and ornaments like curls may seem attractive, but they can hinder legibility.
The more decorative and fancy the illustration is, the more difficult it becomes for readers to comprehend and get used to it.
New designs and fancy fonts may be for people who are acquainted with them, but not for the lot who like it simple and classy.
Inverse Relationship Between Readability And Legibility
“Readability” is the ease with which the eye can absorb the message and move along the line.
“Legibility” is based on the ease with which one letter can be told from the other.
According to J. Ben Lieberman’s “Types of Typefaces” (1968),
Each one defining the typeface in the best way is inversely related to each other in such a way that:
A typeface can be illegible but readable at the same time.
A typeface can be legible and unreadable at the same time.
Individual characters can be easy to recognize, but they must have the quality of being readable in groups of letters or phrases.
Similarly, a word or text might be readable despite having legibility issues because the mind can fill in the blanks. But this also seems complicated when a foreign language or a new word is used.
P.S.: If you plan on taking your content writing and website skills to the next level, we suggest you have a look at this video with some excellent pointers and tips about readability and legibility.
Create Designs with more excellent readability
Use simple and conversational language
Avoiding chunky words and paragraphs
Aiming the type size for the audience
Reasonable spacing and line distance
Color and contrast selection comforting for eyes
Create Designs with more excellent legibility
More x-height
Moderate text weight
Right serif category and design traits
Neat and minimalist font
Proportion text width to height
Does Typography Make Any Difference?
Words take you places, and it is essential to make them influential and meaningful. All websites are developed with the aim to maximize the reach and ensure superb surfing experiences for visitors.
This would attract more customers towards your product or services. Excellent readability and legibility ease the reading process for the users, and in return, the customer inadvertently becomes appealed to what you’re selling.
Simple words with short sentences are not enough for easy accessibility of visitors; the font, writing style, width, and spacing also matter a lot.
Let’s Talk Websites That Practice Readability and Legibility
Microsoft Office is a website executing good readability. Its login page has short text lines, enough spacing, and smart word choices. The sentence structure is also commendable.
eBay’s big auction site has good legibility with clean san-serif font and contrasting choices of background.
Many people confuse readability and legibility, but these are the perspectives that make the real difference in the context of sites and brands. Good readability hooks the visitors to the site. But it takes both readability and legibility to glue the people to the website or brand content.
Ask Away: The FAQ Section
What is the name of the readability test?
The Flesch Reading Ease test was developed by Rudolf Flesch. It grades a text sample from 0-100.
Scores ranging between 70-80 are considered good, but those that fall below 60 have a poor readability score.