Legibility refers to how easily a written text can be read and understood. It is affected by visual factors such as composition and word spacing, as well as mental factors such as sentence length and word complexity. Readability tests can measure both types of legibility, and improving readability involves simplifying sentences and word choice. While research has identified objective factors that contribute to readability, good writing remains an art as much as a science.
Legibility refers to the ease of reading a written text. In general, readability can be broken down into two factors: how well text is laid out visually and how easily words and sentences can be understood. Good writing should be highly readable in order to be clearly understood by a large audience.
The first characteristic of legibility concerns the visual arrangement of words on a page or screen. The visual legibility of text is affected by composition, line length, word spacing, and other visual factors. Researchers use several methods to test readability, usually involving human participants rather than mathematical formulas. These tests can measure how well the participant can read the material in a short period of time, at a distance, or through peripheral vision. Other methods include recording participants’ eye movements and blinks to measure eye strain.
The second factor concerns the ease of understanding a text mentally, not just visually. A number of characteristics of readable texts have been identified, in particular few syllables per word, few words per sentence and few uncommon words. These objective factors can be calculated using a variety of readability tests, such as the Gunning Fog index or the Dale-Chall formula. Such tests often evaluate readability based on the number of years of schooling it would take to understand a text. For example, a text that scored 6.0 on the Gunning Fog index could likely be read and understood by someone who has completed six years of formal education.
Some studies can be used to measure both types of readability. For example, work rate studies measure how quickly participants are able to read and understand a text. Quantification of fatigue can also have both physical and mental components.
In addition to these measurable characteristics of legible writing, some researchers include subjective factors such as interest. For example, if a person finds a piece of writing interesting, they are more likely to keep the information it contains. Although interest is difficult to quantify mathematically, studies have indicated that test takers read faster when they rate material as interesting.
Improving readability is often a matter of breaking down long, complicated sentences into shorter sentences and replacing simple words with unnecessarily complex ones. However, it is important to vary the length of the sentence and the choice of words to get the reader’s attention. While research has been done to quantify what makes text readable, good writing remains as much an art as a science.
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