According to a study by Princeton University researchers, hard-to-read fonts may enhance learning. Heaven help us all, this means that Comic Sans actually serves a legitimate purpose…and all those fonts that are even worse than Comic Sans, and which should never be used to typeset a book? Also have a legitimate, non-accent purpose.
I only hope that self-publishers who already engage in font abuse don’t get ahold of this article, for the sake of all our eyes.
Then again, perhaps this means that I should typeset Broken in an LCD font and Hickey of the Beast in something gothic, to increase reader engagement with the text!
…woah, woah, put down the pitchforks, guys. I was only kidding. I swear!
Could you imagine trying to read a full book in some of those fonts? Personally, I’d drop the book. I could see it helping in learning, maybe because how much you would have to focus, but it would annoy me first.
I’m with you, honestly. While I can see the point of the study – that having to really concentrate on a text makes you retain the information – that’s really not the point of reading for pleasure. The idea of reading a whole book in Comic Sans gives me hives…