Readability/Usability/Quality 1-99 (March 1999) by Amo Fuchs

I believe that the preference for the Arial font is European. Most American texts are set in Times New Roman - save for headings, where they too use a non-serif font.

I have the same problem with Hebrew. I found out that for a short document, a letter, or a short instruction manual, serif is ok, but for a long document, especially if it is formatted, the "panaches" of the serifs strain your eyes.

The problem with the authors of texts is that they read their texts again and again, almost memorize them - so that they are not really aware of what is going on in the virgin eyes of a new reader. Try to read some extensive manual, say 20 or more pages, written by others, and printed in serif. Where the switch from serif to sans serif happens (i.e. a few pages to 20+ pages), is probably an individual choice.

There is another point which merits investigation. Maybe it has been done, but I do not know if it has: Diacritics. If you take American texts of 30 or 40 years ago, you still may find some diacritics are used, namely in quotations. In British texts, you will find find even more. However, in German and French texts, they are an integral part of the language.

But since the advent of Microsoft diacritics have disappeared. Probably, this is one person’s preference. And maybe the American preference for Times New Roman is just again one person’s preference - and everybody else has to comply with it.

I would be glad to hear others’ opinions too, particularly on the default color of PowerPoint.

Amo Fuchs
 

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