typeRulerMedium
Fig. z1. Typographers carry rulers (or used to), but they do not measure performance. Scan by H. Famira.
Artists look, scientists measure:
A type designer and a vision researcher discuss legibility.

Submitted to Visible Language.

Denis G. Pelli
Psychology & Neural Science, New York University 
psych.nyu.edu/pelli/

and

Hannes F. Famira
FamiraFont
and
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art

ABSTRACT

Wondering about the difference between art and science, a visual scientist and a graphic artist 
(type designer) discuss legibility, an important topic in both of their disciplines. To create images, 
graphic artists rely on their perceptual experience. Seeking to explain perception, visual 
scientists begin by measuring it. By comparing how the same topic, legibility, is treated by our 
two disciplines, this case study isolates the effect of the discipline from that of the topic itself. 
The dialog surprisingly reveals two big differences in approach and one common discovery. For 
the scientist, legibility is reading speed; for the artist, it is pleasure (or avoiding displeasure), a 
subjective amalgam of factors that make the text fit for consumption. Reading pleasure is much 
more sensitive to the typography than is reading speed. Scientists measure perception but dont 
really look (i.e. pause to appreciate the pleasure); artists look but don
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