Analysis of font legibility for Korean serif and sans serif types in printed and displayed settings

Abstract

Activities with smart devices have been more complicated and diversified, and font legibility influences these activities both directly and indirectly. This study investigated the difference of Korean font legibility between printed paper and VDT. Four Korean fonts, Dodum and Gulim - sans serif types, and Batang and Gungseo - serif types, were compared in experiments. The result showed that there was a significant difference in the font legibility for printed paper, but not for VDT. On printed paper, serif types were more legible than sans serif types. However, a significant difference between serif types and sans serif types were not found in VDT. Dodum, one of the sans serif font types achieved the highest score on preference in the survey questionnaire among the four Korean fonts. The paper suggests that serif types did not always provide the optimal legibility in VDT.