READING TYPE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20903, 10 July 1933, Page 9

READING TYPE.

j ♦——• | CONTROLLING EYESTRAIN. ; "The muscle work involved in i reading is not continuous," wrote j Mr F. G. Bartlett, of the Psychoj logical Laboratory, Cambridge, and j a member of the British Medical Research Council's Committee on the legibility of type, congratulating the London "News-Chronicle" on its change to Excelsior. "The eyes move along a line of type in a series of small jerks, and the actual reading is done while they are at rest between each pair of jerks. The number of jerks necessary for reading any line of print is determined by several different factors, but one of these is certainly the degree to which the letters, words, and phrases appear to be 'spread out.' "The printer cannot, of course, control that amount of strain that is due to swift changes from light to shade, to the shakiness of a train, or the unevenness of a road, but he can, to some extent, control that which is due to any appearance of unevenness and sharp contrast in the type itself. "In this respect I am satisfied that your new type brings about a marked improvement." ["The Press" recently changed its ■ type to Excelsior.]