<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Calibri Light";
panose-1:2 15 3 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Verdana;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Letter Gothic Std";
panose-1:2 11 4 9 2 2 2 3 3 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Myriad Pro";
panose-1:2 11 5 3 3 4 3 2 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Lucida Console";
panose-1:2 11 6 9 4 5 4 2 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Consolas;
panose-1:2 11 6 9 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"DejaVu Sans";
panose-1:2 11 6 3 3 8 4 2 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Open Sans";
panose-1:2 11 6 6 3 5 4 2 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#954F72;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:black;
position:relative;
top:0pt;
mso-text-raise:0pt;
letter-spacing:0pt;
font-weight:normal;
font-style:normal;}
span.NewAdded
{mso-style-name:"New\/Added";
mso-style-priority:1;
color:#7B7B7B;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Hi all –<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">I’ve been thinking a lot about readability of text, and I’d like to invite you to brainstorm with me. This is a long detailed posting, and it won’t
hurt my feelings if you delete it here. *smiles* But if you’re a curious person like me…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">We’re likely all familiar with the general guidelines for readable digital text: use a sans serif font like Verdana, use good color contrast and
font size, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Lately I’ve been puzzling over the space between letters, and how typeface choice affects that:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:.5in">
<span class="NewAdded"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">rn m Il1 Arial<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:.5in">
<span class="NewAdded"><span style="font-family:"Myriad Pro",sans-serif;color:black">rn m Il1 Myriad Pro<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:.5in">
<span class="NewAdded"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">rn m Il1 Times New Roman<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:.5in">
<span class="NewAdded"><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:black">rn m Il1 Verdana<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">(Hopefully this doesn’t come across to you converted into plain text; if you don’t see the above as different fonts, you may want to play around
with it yourself.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">My vision is 20/20, but I find that in most cases, the two lowercase letters
<span style="letter-spacing:1.0pt">RN,</span> next to each other, are difficult to distinguish from the single lowercase letter M. Depending on the typeface, it at times it’s also difficult to tell the difference between uppercase I, lowercase L, and/or the
numeral 1. Usually I can tell the difference from context, but if it’s an unfamiliar word, someone’s name, or a password, it may take me a few moments to make sure I’m reading it correctly. Same goes for the common abbreviation for accessibility: a11y.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Fiddling around for better readability, I’ve tried playing with kerning, increasing the space between letters. Again, if you get this converted
to plain text, you won’t see that in the text below, I’ve increased the space between letters by 1 pt:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:.5in">
<span class="NewAdded"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;letter-spacing:1.0pt">rn m Il1 Arial<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:.5in">
<span class="NewAdded"><span style="font-family:"Myriad Pro",sans-serif;color:black;letter-spacing:1.0pt">rn m Il1 Myriad Pro<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:.5in">
<span class="NewAdded"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;letter-spacing:1.0pt">rn m Il1 Times New Roman<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:.5in">
<span class="NewAdded"><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:black;letter-spacing:1.0pt">rn m Il1 Verdana<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">It doesn’t help with the “uppercase-I, lowercase-L, or numeral 1?” question. It usually helps with the “rn or m?” question, but as a trainer, I
can just imagine myself trying to tell people to increase their kerning in order to improve readability. Besides, I don’t recall seeing that recommended anywhere as a best practice for digital accessibility.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">So I got to thinking, what about monospaced (fixed width) typefaces? The characters each occupy the same amount of horizontal space, unlike the
other typefaces above with are variable width.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:.5in">
<span style="font-family:Consolas;color:black">rn m Il1 Consolas (monospaced)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:.5in">
<span style="font-family:"DejaVu Sans",sans-serif;color:black">rn m Il1 DejaVu Sans (monospaced)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:.5in">
<span style="font-family:"Letter Gothic Std";color:black">rn m Il1 Letter Gothic (monospaced)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:.5in">
<span style="font-family:"Lucida Console";color:black">rn m Il1 Lucida Console (monospaced)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">To my eyes, it’s usually easier to distinguish between the characters, and I’m tempted to start recommending that people use a typeface like Consolas
or Lucida Console. However, again, I don’t recall hearing any accessibility people recommending monospaced typefaces.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Anybody have any thoughts on this?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Best,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Chris<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:#007048">Christine Robinson</span></b><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:#007048">
</span><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">| </span>
<span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black">Technical Trainer/Writer | Center for Teaching Excellence<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:#007048">Georgia Gwinnett College</span></b><span style="font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black"> | 1000 University Center Lane, L-2158 | Lawrenceville, GA 30043<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>