Presentation by Cameron Romney given April 24, 2011 at Osaka JALT's Back to School Event.

1. Typographic best practices for
classroom materials
Cameron Romney
Center for Foreign Language Education
Momoyama Gakuin University
(St. Andrew’s University)
April 24, 2011

2. Agenda
• Typography basics
• Issues for L2 learners
• Best practices for classroom materials
• Recommended Typefaces (fonts)

3. Typeface vs. Font

4. “The font is the cookie
cutter, and the typeface
is the cookie.” (p. 29)
Felici (2003)

5. Why should you care?

6. Typographic effects on readers
• Motivation
Smiley (2005); Misanchuk (1992); Bell & Sullivan (1981)
• Comprehension
Gasser, Boeke, Haffernan, & Tan (2005); Romney (2006); Smiley (2005); Walker (2001), Hoener, Salend & Kay (1997); Garofalo (1988),
Lewis & Walker (1989)
• Recall
Gasser, Boeke, Haffernan, & Tan (2005); Smiley (2005); Lewis & Walker (1989)
• Efficiency/Speed
Smiley (2005); Hoener, Salend & Kay (1997)

7. “...more easily perceiving ... text on a
page ... less attentional resources are
required for the process of reading. More
attentional resources can then be
devoted to attending to the message in
the text, which results in deeper
processing and an easier recall of the
information presented.” (p. 185)
Gasser, Boek, Haffernan & Tan (2005)

8. Serif and Sans-serif
Bowley (2009), Bringhurst (2004), Craig (1990), Felici (2003), Kirsanov (1998),
Lupton (2004), Madison (2003), Miller (2002), Misanchuk (1992), Romney (2004),
Walker & Reynolds (2003),White (2002), Williams (2008), etc.

9. EM EM

10. Legibility vs. Readability

11. EM EM

12. L2 Learners

14. LC l and UC I

15. LC d, b, q and p

16. Lowercase i and j

17. Lowercase c and o

18. Lowercase f and t

19. Double story minuscules
Images from Wikipedia

20. Best Practices

21. Best Practice #1
Use the font students
are FAMILIAR with

22. “people most easily read material
printed in the typefaces with
which they are most familiar.” (p. 32)
Hoener, Salend & Kay (1997)

23. Copyright page

24. Identifont & WhatTheFont
www.identifont.com http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont
(includes an iPhone app)

25. Best Practice #2
set the typeface at a
LARGER size

26. • Less skilled readers benefit from larger text
Carter, Day & Meggs (2006); Petterson (1989)
• 9-12 pt is standard for adults
Carter, Day & Meggs (2006)
• 18 pt for 1st grade, 14 pt for 3rd grade, 11 pt
for 6th grade
Hoener, Salend & Kay (1997)

27. Best Practice #3
Use a font with good
LEGIBILITY

28. “...it has long been an article of
faith that serifed typefaces are
easier to read than san serif”
Felici (2003)

29. Best Practice #4
Don’t forget the
PRINTING & COPYNG

31. Best Practice #5
Use fonts with
PURPOSE

32. Example

33. “...you should never put two sans
serif typefaces on the same page,
and you should never put two serif
typeface on the same page” (p. 175)
Williams (2008)

34. Recommended
Typefaces
Serif Sans Serif
• Georgia • Verdana
• Lucida Bright • Tahoma
• Bembo Schoolbook • Helvetica Textbook

35. Georgia
Image from Identifont

36. Lucida Bright
Image from Identifont

37. Bembo Schoolbook
Image from Identifont

38. Verdana
Image from Identifont

39. Tahoma
Image from Identifont

40. Helvetica Textbook
Image from Identifont

41. Typographic best practices for
classroom materials
Cameron Romney
Center for Foreign Language Education
Momoyama Gakuin University
(St. Andrew’s University)
April 24, 2011