A new font called Sans Forgetica, created by Australia’s RMIT University, is designed to be difficult to read with blank spaces in the letters, which activates memory and retention. In a study, students remembered 7% more of the text they read in Sans Forgetica than in Arial. It’s ideal for study but not for lengthy reading.
This article is written in a font, or typeface, meant to be easy to read, but if we really want you to remember everything, we might want to switch to “Sans Forgetica.” The new font, invented by a team from Australia’s RMIT University, is based on design and the psychological principles of memory and retention. But how can a font help you remember? It might seem counterintuitive, but Sans Forgetica was created with the intention of being somewhat difficult to read, including leaving blank spaces within the letters. According to typography professor Stephen Banham, there is a method to the madness. “The mind will naturally try to complete those shapes and by doing so it slows down reading and activates memory,” he said. The font came out of a study that employed about 400 students. They ended up remembering 7% more of the text they read in Sans Forgetica than in Arial. Janneke Blijleven, senior marketing lecturer, said the typeface creates a good “memory trace,” making it ideal for study but not for lengthy reading. A novel written in Sans Forgetica “would probably produce a headache,” Banham said.
Character Facts:
Steve Jobs built many of the first computer fonts and named them after cities he loved, including Toronto, Chicago, Geneva, and Venice.
Vincent Connare created the much-maligned Comic Sans, but has only used it once to submit a complaint about his broadband service.
To compare fonts, many people type the word “Handgloves.”
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