Sometimes we wonder if readability really has to be the center of everything…
We are continually amazed at how tirelessly the topic of “readability” is debated within professional circles. This fixation often leaves us feeling puzzled. We would – following Erik Spiekermann – rather say: “The differences in readability between the most common typefaces are minimal” – the rest feels like typographic white noise.
We even allow ourselves to think further: we hold the view that optimizing readability is not the central task when choosing or designing a typeface, but merely one of many relevant design aspects.
The term itself is surprisingly vague in the industry and is often used as a convenient excuse. Hans Peter Willberg – a recognized authority – has long since clearly differentiated between distinguishability, legibility, and readability. And indeed: countless other factors influence text comprehension far more strongly than the shape of individual glyphs. Presentation, layout, semantic structure, information hierarchy – all of these often have a greater impact than the literal typeface.
“Those who rely solely on readability rarely read on.”
Nevertheless, a black-and-white mindset often prevails in the typographic environment. In quite a few studios and committees, there are groups that effectively claim the right to judge the “quality” of typefaces – as if they were some kind of stylistic police authority. And of course, readability is regularly misused there as a trump card – usually without verifiable scientific evidence.
By the way, it is not only the “traditionalists” or “die-hards” who cling to this attitude. Many younger typographers also move with astonishing tunnel vision within the same thought patterns, almost as if they had to please yesterday’s ideologues.
We attribute no authority to such instances. We advocate for maximum typographic diversity because, for us, typeface choice primarily enables the profiling of a brand personality – a visual space for content, identity, and design presence.
“Type is image, image is type”
If a text is not read, it is rarely due to the typeface, but almost always due to uninteresting staging, lack of contrast, weak organization, or a dull design grid. A typeface with strong character, on the other hand, can make a content foundation visible, precisely accentuate it, and open a visual narrative.
“Design requires personality.”
We encourage designers to think more boldly, question common rules, and not be intimidated by the “crows” of the industry. Those who take design seriously know: readability is important – but never more important than charisma, attitude, and personality. And this is precisely where the self-appointed quality guardians – those backward-looking “ideologues” – often fail, who apparently still believe that typography primarily consists of parroting old dogmas.
Source: Willberg, Hans Peter & Forssman, Friedrich: “Lesetypografie”, Verlag Hermann Schmidt Mainz, 2000.