Both legibility and readability hinge on the idea of the anatomy and spacial elements of Typography.
Leading: The amount of lead they put between each letterform to create space.
- The spaces around the letterforms is the one thing that will affect the ability of what we're trying to read (the counter).
- Strong way of allowing us to identify certain letterforms.
- Idea of fonts themselves being used for certain functions: some being more legible than others.
- Be aware that some people find Roman body copy easier to read
- Where as others find Gothic body copy easier to read.
- Dyslexics often find Roman easier to read.
- When you increase the size of Block, Gothic and Script fonts, it becomes easier to read. However, when you increase the size of Roman body copy, it becomes harder to read.
- Block/bold type needs spacing to increase the legibility.
- Never play with body copy spacing as it has been set to a certain scale for ultimate legibility.
Legibility
Legibility is the degree to which glyphs (individual characters) in text are understandable or recognisable based on appearance. This is based very much on the anatomical elements.
Readability
Readability is the ease in which text can be read and understood. It is influenced by line length, primary and secondary leading, justification, typestyle, kerning, tracking, point size, etc.
Tracking
Tracking starts to pull the letters along their base line and create more space, for example:
You can use a lot of fonts within one typeface and keep some cohesion and legibility. However, DON'T USE MORE THAN 3 FONTS.
