The first version of the word is clearly legible and readable and to me, words in all capital letters are by far the easiest to read. For the second version, I still kept it readable but somewhat illegible. I can still read the word without too much of a problem but I reversed the B and K as well as flipping the R upside down to trick the eye just a bit. For the third version of my word, it's obviously very much unreadable and without a doubt, illegible. I basically placed the whole word upside down, or reflected the second version of the word. Although it's totally illegible, I kept the W and R in the correct form just to make it SOMEWHAT readable...just for fun! This technique can be a valid tool in design in certain cases. If in a case let's say an album cover, and the band was going for an intricate design feel, where there is basically no rules or standards, I can see this working. So in cases such as the one I've stated, sometimes readability isn't too important but I wouldn't recommend having your business logo/title or for example, magazines and/or novels designed in this way. It may not be a good idea to have a reversed, upside down title. Do you agree??
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Ricky, hey man I wanted to let you know that you kept saying legible when actually it is all legible just not readable. If you can make out the indivisual letters and they dont run over each other or arnt distorted to much then they are legible. Readable is if you can actually make out what the message is or what it says. For example a jumble when you have to sit there forever to figure out what word it is so you have to change letters around. I'm sure bill will correct me if I'm wrong and yours was probably just mistake but other than that. Just change all legibility words to readability and your blog makes perfect sense. I agree with you on this topic.
ReplyDeleteExactly so, Ray. (The Force is strong in this one!) Ricky, I think most typographers (and reading psychologists) would disagree with your statement that all caps is more readable. As I showed in class, the eye scans the shape of the letters (the word shape is often called a "bouma") and uses the shapes of the letterforms to recognize the word. When the words are in all caps, with no up and down pattern, reading slows down. Instead of scanning the word across the line, the eyes have to transmit each letter until the brain recognizes the word. This is particularly difficult with sans serif caps.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the correction guys, and now that I think about it maybe I was wrong to begin with. I think I was only looking at the situation in a "design" point of few, instead of looking at everything involved with type. I guess it would be a pain reading a novel all in caps! I'm just a huge fan of logos in caps..like band name logos for example. Thanks for the comments!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement, being that for album covers, this could work. I also feel that the correct word choice would be necessary for this to be successful, jawbreaker works just fine.
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