Research

Members of The Readability Consortium are marked with ⁂

Members of The Readability Consortium’s Internal Research Team are marked with ⁑

Research Associates of The Readability Consortium are marked with *

2025

Text Simplification Using LLMS

February 2025

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) holds great promise as a tool to support personalized learning. Teachers need tools to efficiently and effectively enhance content readability of educational texts so that they are matched to individual students’ reading levels, while retaining key details. Large Language Models (LLMs) show potential to fill this need, but previous research notes multiple shortcomings in current approaches.

Stephanie L. Day^1,⁑, Jacapo Cirica^1,⁑, Steven R. Clapp^1,⁑, Veronika Penkova^1,⁑, Amy E. Giroux^1,⁑, Abbey Banta^1,⁑, Catherine Bordeau^1,⁑, Poojitha Mutteneni^1,⁑, Ben D. Sawyer^1,⁑

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2024

The Influence of Format Readability on Children’s Reading Speed and Comprehension

August 2024

Format readability, including font and spacing, impacts reading metrics in adults, but will the research generalize to children? We examined how eight fonts (four serif and four sans serif) and three-character spacing variations influenced children’s reading comprehension and reading speed. Methods: Fifty-one students in third–fifth grade read 11 narrative text passages on a computer and answered comprehension questions. Passages were randomized in terms of order. First, the font in which the text of each passage was presented was manipulated. Then passages were presented in three spacing manipulations (narrow, normal, and wide). Results: A linear mixed effects model demonstrated…

Stephanie Day^1,2,⁑, Nilsu Atilgan^1,⁑, Amy Giroux^1,2,⁑, Ben D. Sawyer^1,2,⁑

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Humanizing AI in Education: A Readability Comparison of LLM and Human-Created Educational Content

August 2024

We explored whether Generative AI (GenAI), specifically the Large Language Model (LLM) can produce educational content with similar readability features as human-generated reading passages.This study compared readability measures such as reading speed, comprehension, and qualitative characteristics (familiarity, interest, and perceived quality) of 300-word 8th-grade level text passages authored by humans and ChatGPT3.5.

Md Mamunur Rashid^1,2,⁑, Nilsu Atilgan^2,⁑, Jonathan Dobres^2,⁑, Stephanie Day^1,2,⁑, Veronika Penkova^2,⁑, Mert Küçük^2,⁑, Steven R. Clapp^1,2,⁑, Ben D. Sawyer^1,2,⁑

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VSS | Light or Heavy? Navigating Font Weights and Font Grades for Enhanced Readability

Poster

August 2024

The study Provides valuable insights into the readability of text across different parametric font variables and demographic groups. Designers and educators can create more effective and inclusive reading materials.

Md Mamunur Rashid^1,2,⁑, Nilsu Atilgan^1,2,⁑, Hilary Palmén^2,3,⁂, Jonathan Dobres^2,⁑, Sam Berlow^2,⁑, Mert Küçük^2,⁑, Ben D. Sawyer^1,2,⁑

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VSS | Typeface Matters: Psychophysical Insights into Readability Across Different Reading Tasks

Poster

August 2024

Reading research is vast, encompassing diverse perspectives, from single letter recognition in the periphery to evaluating comprehension and fatigue in reading longer texts. While our visual system operates similarly in various reading tasks, the specific underlying visual mechanisms for each task may differ. To gain a complete understanding of the factors affecting reading, it is crucial to assess and compare their impact across different tasks.

Nilsu Atilgan^1,2,⁑, Jonathan Dobres^2,⁑, Md Mamunur Rashid^1,2,⁑, Sam Berlow^2,⁑, Ben D. Sawyer^1,2,⁑

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VSS | A Psychophysical Approach For Investigating Format Readability Online

Poster

August 2024

We introduce a scientific tool designed for online reading performance studies.

The tool’s primary function is to assess reading performance across various typefaces, font parameters (e.g. weight, width, etc.), letter spacings by ranking comprehension scores and reading speed.

Kurtuluş Mert Küçük^3,⁑, Md Mamunur Rashid^3,5,⁑, Anna Kosovicheva^1,2,*, Veronica Penkova^3,⁑, Amy Giroux^3,5,⁑, Nilsu Atilgan^3,⁑, Shaun Wallace^4,*, Sam Berlow^3,⁑, Stephanie Day^3,5,⁑, Ben D. Sawyer^3,5,⁑

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2023

HFES | Format Readability Enhancing in Basic Mathematical Operations

Poster

October 2023

Individuated font selection, which can increase text reading speed, may be able to increase mathematical expression reading speed and influence reasoning accuracy. To investigate whether the same font that increases a participant’s reading speed enhances mathematical reading, we compared their speed in evaluating mathematical expressions as true or false presented in their fastest reading font as determined by empirical test and with a control font, Times Roman.

Caterina B Azzarello^{1,3, ⁑}, Dave B Miller ^{2, *}, Ben D. Sawyer^{1, ⁑}, Joanna E Lewis^{3, *}

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One Font Doesn’t Fit All: The Influence of Digital Text Personalization on Comprehension in Child and Adolescent Readers

June 2023

Reading comprehension is an essential skill. It is unclear whether and to what degree typography and font personalization may impact reading comprehension in younger readers. With advancements in technology, it is now feasible to personalize digital reading formats in general technology tools, but this feature is not yet available for many educational tools. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of character width and inter-letter spacing on reading speed and comprehension.

Shannon M. Sheppard^1,*, Susanne Nobles^2,*, Anton Palma³, Sophie Kajfez¹, Marjorie Jordan^{4, ⁂}, Kathy Crowley^{4, ⁂}, Sofie Beier^5,*

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VSS | What’s your type? Psychophysics of Variable Fonts: Reading Speed and Comprehension Measures

May 2023

Variable fonts allow designers to manipulate how text appears along many continuous axes. This produces text that looks very different, from a single font file, and these continuous axes lend themselves to researchers using psychophysical techniques to study them.

Silvia Guidi^1,2, Zainab Haseeb^1,2, Anna Kosovicheva^1,2,*, Benjamin Wolfe^1,2,*

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VSS | What’s Your Type? Psychophysics of Variable Fonts: Gaze Measures of Reading Efficiency

May 2023

Reading is a complex task that presents challenges across different platforms, and finding the optimal font and spacing for individuals remains an ongoing area of study. Our goal was to investigate the effects of variable fonts on reading performance. Variable fonts allow designers to manipulate text appearance along many continuous “axes”. This allows them to produce text that looks very different, all from a single font file. Variable fonts uniquely allow customization of font appearance along a set of continuous parametric axes within a single font file lending themselves readily to psychophysical techniques.

Zainab Haseeb^1,2, Silvia Guidi^1,2, Benjamin Wolfe^1,2,*, Anna Kosovicheva^1,2,*

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VSS | THERIF: Diverse Reading Themes for Readability

May 2023

Digital reading applications give readers the ability to customize fonts, sizes, and spacings, all of which have been shown to improve the reading experience for readers from different demographics. However, tweaking these text features can be challenging, especially given their interactions on the final look and feel of the text.

Tianyuan Cai¹, Aleena Gertrudes Niklaus¹, Michael Kraley¹, Bernard Kerr^1,*, Zoya Bylinskii^{1, ⁂}

¹  

CHI | How Bold Can We Be? The Impact of Adjusting Font Grade on Readability in Light and Dark Polarities

Video Presentation

19 April 2023

Variable font file technology enables adjusting fonts on scaled axes that can include weight, and grade. While making text bold increases the character width, grade achieves boldness without increasing character width or causing text reflow. Through two studies with a total of 459 participants, we examined the effect of varying grade levels on both glancing and paragraph reading tasks in light and dark modes.

Hilary Palmén^{1, ⁂}, Michael Gilbert¹, David Crossland^{1, ⁂}

¹

CHI | Digital Reading Rulers: Evaluating Inclusively Designed Rulers for Readers With Dyslexia and Without

April 2023

Physical reading rulers are simple yet effective interventions that help readers with dyslexia. Digital reading rulers may offer similar benefits. Given their potential value, we provide the following contributions: (1) We host focus group sessions including people with dyslexia to build upon their lived experiences, (2) We provide evidence for designs that are effective and preferred, (3) We measure reading gains of rulers for readers with and without dyslexia.

Aleena Gertrudes Niklaus¹, Tianyuan Cai¹, Zoya Bylinskii^{1, ⁂}, Shaun Wallace²

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WWW | Web Table Formatting Affects Readability on Mobile Devices

April 2023

Reading large tables on small mobile screens presents serious usability challenges that can be addressed, in part, by better table formatting. However, there are few evidenced-based guidelines for formatting mobile tables to improve readability. For this work, we first conducted a survey to investigate how people interact with tables on mobile devices and conducted a study with designers to identify which design considerations are most critical.

Christopher Tensmeyer¹, Zoya Bylinskii^{1, ⁂}, Tianyuan Cai¹, Dave B. Miller^2,*, Ani Nenkova¹, Aleena Niklaus¹, Shaun Wallace³

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CHI | THERIF: A Pipeline for Generating Themes for Readability with Iterative Feedback

March 2023

Digital reading applications give readers the ability to customize fonts, sizes, and spacings, all of which have been shown to improve the reading experience for readers from different demographics. However, tweaking these text features can be challenging, especially given their interactions on the final look and feel of the text. Our solution is to offer readers preset combinations of font, character, word and line spacing, which we bundle together into reading themes.

Tianyuan Cai¹, Aleena Gertrudes Niklaus¹, Michael Kraley¹, Bernard Kerr^1,*, Zoya Bylinskii^{1, ⁂}

¹  

2022

NOW | Readability Research: An Interdisciplinary Approach

12 December 2022

Readability can be enhanced by changes to the set of typographical characteristics of a text. These aspects can be modified on-demand, instantly improving the ease with which a reader can process and derive meaning from text. We call on a multi-disciplinary research community to take up these challenges to elevate reading outcomes and provide the tools to do so effectively.

Sofie Beier^1,*, Sam Berlow^{2, ⁑}, Esat Boucaud³, Zoya Bylinskii ^{4, ⁂}, Tianyuan Cai⁴, Jenae Cohn^5,*, Kathy Crowley^{6, ⁂}, Stephanie L. Day^{2, ⁑},

Tilman Dingler, Jonathan Dobres^{2, ⁑}, Jennifer Healey⁴, Rajiv Jain, Marjorie Jordan^{6, ⁂}, Bernard Kerr^4,*, Qisheng Li⁷, Dave B. Miller^8,*,

Susanne Nobles^9,*, Alexandra Papoutsaki¹⁰, Jing Qian, Tina Rezvanian⁴, Shelley Rodrigo^11,*, Ben D. Sawyer^{2, ⁑}, Shannon M. Sheppard^12,*,

Bram Stein, Rick Treitman^{4, ⁂}, Jen Vanek^13,*, Shaun Wallace¹⁴, Benjamin Wolfe^15,*

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VSS | Space for Readability: Effects on Reading Speed from Individuated Character and Word Spacing

December 2022

Our prior work shows that individual typeface selection per reader can significantly increase reading speed while maintaining comprehension. The present work extends that work to consider the influence of character and word spacing on adult reading performance in a large online study.

Shaun Wallace¹, Jonathan Dobres^{2, ⁑}, Zoya Bylinskii^{3, ⁂}, Ben D. Sawyer^{2, ⁑}

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SSSR | Influences of Font Format on Reading Comprehension: Implications of Font Personalization in K-8 Students

July 2022

Digital reading applications give readers the ability to customize fonts, sizes, and spacings, all of which have been shown to improve the reading experience for readers from different demographics. However, tweaking these text features can be challenging, especially given their interactions on the final look and feel of the text.

Shannon M. Sheppard^1,*, Susanne Nobles^2,*, Sophie Kajfez³, Anton Palma, Kathy Crowley^{4, ⁂}, Marjorie Jordan^{4, ⁂}, Sofie Beier^5,*

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SSSR | The Effect of Individualized Font Formats on Reading Speed and Comprehension for Students in Grades 3-5

July 2022

This study assessed if the methods used to assess format readability gains in adults are appropriate for use with children and investigated if the format readability gains seen in adults generalize to children. The study results indicate that format readability gains seen in children mirror those observed in adults.

Stephanie L. Day^{1, ⁑}, Amy E. Giroux ^{1, ⁑}, Shaun Wallace², Rick Treitman^{3, ⁂}, Kathy Crowley^{4, ⁂}, Marjorie Jordan^{4, ⁂}, Ben D. Sawyer^{1, ⁑}

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DIS | Personalized Font Recommendations: Combining ML and Typographic Guidelines to Optimize Readability

June 2022

The amount of text people need to read and understand grows daily. Software defaults, designers, or publishers often choose the fonts people read in. However, matching individuals with a faster font could help them cope with information overload.

Tianyuan Cai¹, Shaun Wallace², Tina Rezvanian¹, Jonathan Dobres^{3, ⁑}, Bernard Kerr^1,*, Sam Berlow^{3, ⁑}, Jeff Huang⁴, Ben D. Sawyer^{3, ⁑},

Zoya Bylinskii^{1, ⁂}

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TOCHI | Towards Individuated Reading Experiences: Different Fonts Increase Reading Speed for Different Individuals

31 March 2022

This study considers whether manipulating font choice can improve reading outcomes in adult readers. When comparing fastest and slowest fonts, there was a 35% increase in reading speeds. This was not consistent across fonts, indicating that one font does not fit all. This points to a need for individuation, discussed in this study.

Shaun Wallace¹, Zoya Bylinskii^{2, ⁂}, Jonathan Dobres^{3, ⁑} , Bernard Kerr^2,*, Sam Berlow^{3, ⁑}, Rick Treitman^{2, ⁂}, Nirmal Kumawat,

Kathleen Arpin, Dave B. Miller^4,*, Jeff Huang⁵, Ben D. Sawyer^{3, ⁑}

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Closed Letter Counters Impair Recognition

2022

An often-repeated piece of advice when choosing fonts for great legibility is to use fonts with large counters and apertures. To identify effects of open and closed apertures on the letters ‘a’, ‘c’, ‘e’, ‘r’, ‘s’, ‘t’ and ‘f’, we ran an experiment using the serif font Pyke as stimulus. The letters in focus were designed for this experiment with three variations of open apertures (Open, Medium and Closed).

Sofie Beier^1,*, Chiron A.T. Oderkerk¹

¹

The Dispute About Sans Serif Versus Serif Fonts: An Interaction Between The Variables of Serif and Stroke Contrast

2022

It is a long-lasting dispute whether serif or sans serif fonts are more legible. However, different fonts vary on numerous visual parameters, not just serifs. We investigated whether a difference in word identification can be attributed to the presence or absence of serifs or to the contrast of the letter stroke.

Katsumi Minakata¹, Sofie Beier^1,*

¹

2021

VSS| Considering the Speed and Comprehension Trade-Off in Reading Mediated by Typography

September 2021

This research looks at how typography affects the tradeoff between speed and comprehension in reading. The results suggest that typeface design can help minimize these tradeoffs.

Shaun Wallace¹, Jonathan Dobres^{2, ⁑}, Ben D. Sawyer^{2, ⁑}

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HFES | Optimizing Electronic Health Records Through Readability

22 July 2021

Digital reading formats are a crucial component in regards to medical professionals engaging with Electronic Health Records. This study evaluates whether personalized reading formats can accelerate this engagement process without training or sacrificing comprehension. The results indicate that font optimization may be a direct way to accomplish this.

Rachel V. Ball ¹ , Dave B. Miller^{2, *}, Shaun Wallace³, Kathlyn Camargo Macias ¹ , Kathlyn Camargo Macias ¹ , Mahmoud Ibrahim ¹ ,

Ernesto Robalino Gonzaga ¹ , Olga Karasik ¹ , Dekai R. Rohlsen-Neal ¹ , Sarah Barrientos ¹ , Edward A. Ross ¹ ,

Abdo Asmar ¹ , Ashley M. Hughes ¹ , Peter A. Hancock ¹ , Ben D. Sawyer^{4, ⁑}

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The Effect of Font Width on Eye Movements During Reading

2021

Certain font features (e.g., letter width) can change the amount of space occupied by text in published works. Font styles/features are also known to affect reading eye movements (EM); however, few studies have examined these effects – and none used high-resolution displays.

Katsumi Minakata¹, Sofie Beier^{1, *}

¹

Increased Letter Spacing and Greater Letter Width Improve Reading Acuity in Low Vision Readers

2021

Low vision readers depend on magnification, but magnification reduces the amount of text that can be overviewed and hampers text navigation. In this study, we evaluate the effects that font variations letter spacing, letter width, and letter boldness have on low vision reading.

Sofie Beier^{1, *}, Chiron Oderkerk ¹, Birte Bay, Michael Larsen

¹

AdobeMAX: One Font Does Not Fit All: Type Design and Comprehension

2021

An innovative interdisciplinary research team recently challenged conventional wisdom by studying how type changes can impact students’ speed of reading comprehension.

Zoya Bylinskii^{1, ⁂}, Shannon M. Sheppard^{2, *}, Sofie Beier^{3, *}

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VSS | Individual Differences in Font Preference & Effectiveness as Applied to Interlude Reading in the Digital Age

October 2020

Personalized reading formats can improve reading outcomes. The results of this study constitute a methodology for running large-scale controlled reading studies, a computational toolkit of crowdsourcing experiments, a list of concrete recommendations about favorable and effective fonts, and font normalization strategies.

Shaun Wallace¹, Rick Treitman^{2, ⁂}, Nirmal Kumawat, Kathleen Arpin, Jeff Huang³, Ben D. Sawyer^{4, ⁑}, Zoya Bylinskii^{2, ⁂}

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VSS | Fonts of Wider Letter Shapes Improve Recognition in Peripheral Vision

June 2020

The goal in this study was to investigate the effect of font width on letter recognition. The results indicated a positive correlation between font width and letter recognition. The authors suspect that this is due to a reduction in the crowding interference from surrounding letters.

Chiron A.T. Oderkerk¹, Sofie Beier^{1, *}

¹

CHI | Accelerating Adult Readers with Fonts

April 2020

This study evaluates both font preference and effectiveness. The research shows, after evaluating sixteen different fonts, that Noto Sans and Lato are optimal when the combination of reading speed and comprehension score is the measure. Across the full set of measures, Noto Sans was the “clear favorite.”

Shaun Wallace¹, Ben D. Sawyer^{2, ⁑}, Rick Treitman^{3, ⁂}, Zoya Bylinskii^{3, ⁂}, Jeff Huang⁴

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