| |
 |
Zuzana Licko, designer of many of the typefaces in the Emigre
library states, “Typefaces are not intrinsically legible. Rather, it is the reader's
familiarity with faces that accounts for their legibility. Studies have shown that
readers read best what they read most. Legibility is also a dynamic process, as readers'
habits are everchanging. It seems curious that blackletter typestyles, which we find
illegible today, were actually preferred over more humanistic designs during the eleventh
and fifteenth centuries. Similarly, typefaces that we perceive as illegible today may
well become tomorrow's classic choices”29 A much more progressive thought emerges when
Dutch designer Peter Mertens states, “Letters are legible. If some things are not legible
then they are not letters. Illegible letters do not exist. Illegibility does not exist.
...Every text can be made optimally legible. That is, as long as every publication can
be poured into a mould, a universal shape, a universal form”.30 |
|
In summary, legible type and typography require distinction of characters in order to
have meaning, but beyond that there is not necessarily such a thing as readable typography.
Legible type only holds meaning in relationship to our aesthetic senses, our previous
reading experiences, our cultural background, and the time at which we experience said
typography. |
|
