Legible Fonts Guide

Ok, so the obvious question here is: What makes a font “easy” on the eyes and brain? Aren’t all fonts just … letters? Why are some letters easier to read than others? 

When looking for legible fonts, it’s helpful to think about the shapes of letters and words (fun fact: the term for word shape is “bouma”). Your eyes and brain don’t actually trace every curve and angle of a lower-case “a” before confirming that, yes, it’s a lower-case “a.” Maybe that’s how it worked when you were just learning to read. Still, most of us gain the ability to determine that an “a” is an “a” based on its general shape and its relationship to the letters around it. 

That said, letters come in a variety of shapes depending on the style of a typeface. The “O” in a geometric sans serif, like ITC Avant Garde, is an almost perfect circle. A single-story “a” could be confused, at first, for that same “o.” Can you read a geometric sans like Avant Garde or Futura? Of course. But it could often be easier. 

Enter humanist typefaces. Humanist typefaces are rooted in calligraphic tradition and therefore have echoes in human handwriting (hence the name) hardwired into their DNA. A popular example of humanist type is Proxima Nova by Mark Simonson. Look closely at the “o” and you’ll see it’s a subtle oval, not a circle. Examine the lowercase “a” and you’ll notice that the strokes on the bowl get thinner as they meet the vertical stem. All these details signal the letter’s identity to our brains. Other popular humanist typefaces (and humanist/geometric hybrids) include Frutiger, Morandi, Gotham, and Optima.