pleasing the reader by pleasing the eye—part 1. format & design
readability has been defined as the ‘sum total . . . of all those elements within a given piece of printed material that affect the success a group of readers have with it. the success is the extent to which they understand it, read it at an optimal speed, and find it interesting’ (Dale and Chall, 1949). Readability, then, does not solely depend on linguistic aspects, but also on the ways white space, typefaces, and visuals are arranged on a page. This article is the first in a series of assays on the role of format and design in the readability equation.
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