Table of contents 1. What do we mean by legibility? Broad definition Legibility, readability, and related concepts Why is legibility important? Functionality versus aesthetics Evidence for legibility Summary 2. How we read Rationale Eye movements How do we recognise words? Word shape re-examined Parallel letter recognition Word context Identification of letter features Reading different typefaces and handwriting Summary 3. Perspectives on legibility Historical perspective Research directions Design perspective Combining resources across disciplines Summary 4. What is measured and how Different types of testing and research Challenges Key criteria Reading conditions Material used in studies Comparing typefaces Illustrating test material Familiarity Methods Threshold and related measures Speed and accuracy measures Physiological measures Subjective judgements Summary 5. Overview of research: Type Introduction Screen versus paper Type Serif versus sans serif Individual letters Letter features Upper versus lower halves of letters and words Upper versus lower case Type size Type variants (bold and italic) Typeface semantics Summary 6. Overview of research: Typography Introduction Letter spacing Word spacing Alignment Line length Columns Line spacing Paragraph denotation Headings Overall layout Identifying dimensions, constructs or variables Effects of good and poor layout Summary 7. Beyond legibility research Broadening the scope Familiarity revisited Brief glances at text Navigation through different menu styles Aesthetics The case against legibility | disfluency Conclusion Acknowledgements Authors Version log