Category | Sans-serif |
---|---|
Designer(s) | Abbie Gonzalez [1] |
Date released | 2011 [1] |
License | SIL Open Font License v1.1 [2] |
Sample | |
Shown here | OpenDyslexic 3 Regular |
Website | opendyslexic |
OpenDyslexic is a free typeface/font designed to mitigate some of the common reading errors caused by dyslexia. The typeface was created by Abbie Gonzalez, who released it through an open-source license. [3] [4] The design is based on DejaVu Sans, also an open-source font.[ citation needed ]
Like many dyslexia-intervention typefaces, most notably Dyslexie, OpenDyslexic adds to dyslexia research and is a reading aid. It is not a cure for dyslexia. [5] The typeface includes regular, bold, italic, bold-italic, and monospaced font styles. The benefit has been questioned in scientific studies. [6]
In 2012, Gonzalez explained their motivation to the BBC: "I had seen similar fonts, but at the time they were completely unaffordable and so impractical as far as costs go." [1]
The typeface is an optional choice on many websites and formats, including Wikipedia, [a] Instapaper, [1] Kobo eReader, [7] Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, a few children's books, [8] [9] and at least one imprint of classic literature. [10]
There is also a Google Chrome extension available, [11] [12] [4] which was developed by Abbie Gonzalez and Robert James Gabriel. [4] [13] It is also part of the "dyslexia-friendly mode" in Oswald Foundation's web accessibility products. [14]
Two small studies have investigated the effect of specialized fonts used with students with dyslexia. Rello and Baeza-Yates (2013) measured eye-tracking recordings of Spanish readers (aged 11–50) with dyslexia and found that OpenDyslexic did not significantly improve reading time nor shorten eye fixation. [15] In her master's thesis, Leeuw (2010) compared Arial and Dyslexie with 21 Dutch students with dyslexia and found Dyslexie did not lead to faster reading, but may help with some dyslexic-related errors. [16]
In its "dyslexia-friendly style guide", the British Dyslexia Association recommends using "sans serif fonts, such as Arial and Comic Sans, as letters can appear less crowded", adding that "alternatives include Verdana, Tahoma, Century Gothic, Trebuchet, Calibri, [and] Open Sans." [17]
There are other typefaces and fonts that have been linked to benefits for people with dyslexia including: BBC Reith, Comic Sans, Dyslexie, FS Me, Sassoon and Sylexiad. [18] [19] [20]
Palatino is an old-style serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf, initially released in 1949 by the Stempel foundry and later by other companies, most notably the Mergenthaler Linotype Company.
Helvetica, also known by its original name Neue Haas Grotesk, is a widely-used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.
Arial is a sans-serif typeface in the neo-grotesque style. Fonts from the Arial family are included with all versions of Microsoft Windows after Windows 3.1, as well as in other Microsoft programs, Apple's macOS, and many PostScript 3 printers. In Office 2007, Arial was replaced by Calibri as the default typeface in PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook.
Tahoma is a humanist sans-serif typeface that Matthew Carter designed for Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft first distributed it, along with Carter's Verdana, as a computer font with Office 97.
Comic Sans MS is a sans-serif typeface designed by Vincent Connare and released in 1994 by Microsoft Corporation. It is a non-connecting script inspired by comic book lettering, intended for use in cartoon speech bubbles, as well as in other casual environments, such as informal documents and children's materials.
Lucida Grande is a humanist sans-serif typeface. It is a member of the Lucida family of typefaces designed by Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes. It is best known for its implementation throughout the macOS user interface from 1999 to 2014, as well as in other Apple software like Safari for Windows. As of OS X Yosemite, the system font was changed from Lucida Grande to Helvetica Neue. In OS X El Capitan the system font changed again, this time to San Francisco.
Letter spacing, character spacing or tracking is an optically consistent typographical adjustment to the space between letters to change the visual density of a line or block of text. Letter spacing is distinct from kerning, which adjusts the spacing of particular pairs of adjacent characters such as "7." which would appear to be badly spaced if left unadjusted, and leading, the spacing between lines.
Trebuchet MS is a humanist sans-serif typeface that Vincent Connare designed for Microsoft Corporation in 1996, and it is also used as the font for the logo of Half-Life. Trebuchet MS was the font used for the window titles in the Windows XP default theme,
Calibri is a digital sans-serif typeface family in the humanist or modern style. It was designed by Luc(as) de Groot in 2002–2004 and released to the general public in 2007, with Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista. In Office 2007, it replaced Times New Roman as the default typeface in Word and replaced Arial as the default in PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and WordPad. De Groot described its subtly rounded design as having "a warm and soft character". In January 2024, the font was replaced by Microsoft's new bespoke font, Aptos, as the new default Microsoft Office font, after 17 years.
In metal typesetting, a font or fount is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface, defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni includes fonts "Roman", "bold" and "italic"; each of these exists in a variety of sizes.
Monotype Grotesque is a family of sans-serif typefaces released by the Monotype Corporation for its hot metal typesetting system. It belongs to the grotesque or industrial genre of early sans-serif designs. Like many early sans-serifs, it forms a sprawling family designed at different times.
Legibility is the ease with which a reader can decode symbols. In addition to written language, it can also refer to behaviour or architecture, for example. From the perspective of communication research, it can be described as a measure of the permeability of a communication channel. A large number of known factors can affect legibility.
Liberation is the collective name of four TrueType font families: Liberation Sans, Liberation Sans Narrow, Liberation Serif, and Liberation Mono. These fonts are metrically compatible with the most popular fonts on the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office software package, for which Liberation is intended as a free substitute. The fonts are default in LibreOffice.
Management of dyslexia depends on a multitude of variables; there is no one specific strategy or set of strategies that will work for all who have dyslexia.
Open Sans is an open source humanist sans-serif typeface that was designed by Steve Matteson under commission from Google. It was released in 2011 and is based on his earlier design called Droid Sans, which was specifically created for Android mobile devices but with slight modifications to its width.
Dyslexie is a typeface/font that was designed with the intention of mitigating some of the issues that dyslexics experience when reading. As many of the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet are visually very similar, the typeface emphasizes the parts of the letter that are different from each other.
Venus or Venus-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface family released by the Bauer Type Foundry of Frankfurt am Main, Germany from 1907 onwards. Released in a large range of styles, including condensed and extended weights, it was very popular in the early-to-mid twentieth century. It was exported to other countries, notably the United States, where it was distributed by Bauer Alphabets Inc, the U.S. branch of the firm.
Oswald Labs is a Dutch-Indian based accessibility technology company that builds products for individuals with disabilities. It specializes in enterprise web accessibility, offers smartphone apps, and also runs a startup accelerator. It was established in 2016 by Anand Chowdhary, Nishant Gadihoke, and Mahendra Raghuwanshi after their product, Oswald Extension, won an event at the AngelHack hackathon in New Delhi.