Readability v/s Legibility

Well I learned that readability and legibility at not the same. Readability is how easy it is to read a lot of text, pages and pages of text. In this type of page a clean serif face is the best to read. I had to look that one up just so I could understand what exactly that was.  So I will share just in case you were unsure as well. Serif is a small line trailing from the edges of the letters and symbols as you can see in this Y. The san-serif one the other hand does not have the extra lines, which is good for title texts or banners. When this type is used it is more legible because the letterforms fit into the pixels better and make cleaner characters. When the serifs are used on a lower resolution digital display the fine lines sometimes disappear or appear too large. 

For readability, make sure type is not too big or to large between 8 and 18 font. Try not to use all caps or too much bold text. Try to avoid long lines of text across the page you will lose the readers eye. Try short lines of text but not too short. In addition, make sure to use enough contrast.  Here comes those CRAP rules again.

For legibility, don’t use all caps and remember to use the sans serif typeface. You can break some of the rules just remember to be conscious of how it reads, is it readable and legible?  Just don’t go to the extreme where you are going to irritate the reader and they lose interest.  Look at other pages and see what looks good and what you feel is frustrating to look at.