Regular font for human beings to learn to write

[Chris Murphy]

On Sep 23, 2014, at 2:00 AM, Aradenatorix Veckhom Vacelaevus <aradnix at gmail.com> wrote:

> Well I watched your video and I think the person who made it has NOT
> idea about what typography is and less about its history. To begin,
> typography is idealized writing. It is, to some extent, abstract,
> impersonal. Not attempts to imitate handwriting as when Gutenberg
> printed his famous Bible of 42 lines.
> 
> 
> It is also true that the font has a calligraphic foundation, but
> typography isn't calligraphy, after 5 centuries of use, typography has
> become a way we visually familiar. It's the same samples in the video
> that is intended to correct (sic).
> 
> When you say "Beginners learning the English language" I'm not sure
> who you mean. I don't know if you mean to foreign adults who need to
> learn English as a second language or native children who have to
> learn to read. In either of both cases I think the approach is wrong.
> 
> While there are calligraphic fonts designs that partially match the
> settings shown in the video, especially in designs lower case letter,
> it has nothing to do with how people learn to read.
> 
> When a person starts reading, thinking about those who use the Latin
> alphabet, not only in English, not a calligraphic letter faithfully
> copy the stroke of the handmade letter , but requires a letter whose
> lines are clear and not cause confusion. That's why Ed suggested
> Grashenko Comic Sans, because even when it was created to simulate the
> text in dialogue balloons in comics, has a design that has been used
> in interesting ways in people with dyslexia. Of course there are
> studies about different designs of fonts to Comic Sans seeking help
> reading for these people, but I haven't heard of any completed and in
> a commercial stage even, but that was three years I checked ago,
> perhaps now there is something more finished .
> 
> In my experience doing children's books and literacy materials for
> adults, rather than emulate the calligraphic stroke of writing, it
> seeks to use a typeface that avoids ambiguity or designs with a sight
> line that beginners may be confused. It is intended that letters like
> a and d, and g, b and d, I (capital i) and l (el), h and n, m  and r n
> are well designed. I don't know if this answer helps in something, or
> I have misunderstood your question. I hope to be the first case.

I agree with all of this, including the questions about context. The fact is any learner of latin character languages will have to learn to read multiple typefaces: handwritten block and cursive, and serif and sans-serif type. The more they read, the better the word recognition will get. The more varied text they read the better the tolerance for "errors" compared to what they're used to will get. Reading itself solves the problem, I'm not sure what better exercise there is for this. I don't see how learning 5 kinds of r's in isolation is going to teach anyone anything at all, because it's a pattern recognition challenge.


Chris Murphy