The Perception of Qualities in Typeface

Abstract

The selection of an appropriate typeface is fundamental in numerous contexts. For example, a typeface that communicates the correct qualities increases the probability of buying a product, perceiving a brand as trustworthy, increasing the time spent exploring a website, and communicating a message effectively (Huang & Liu, 2020; Johnson-Sheehan, 2014; Velasco, 2019). However, professionals report struggling to find the most appropriate typeface for their project and, as a result, spending a considerable amount of time on the search (Wu et al., 2019). This is in part due to the lack of information regarding which qualities each typeface communicates (Wu et al., 2019). In fact, the data that exist on the subject are scattered across several research articles. Consequently, professionals have few tools to help them choose the appropriate typeface based on scientific data, and instead must often rely on personal experience (O’Donovan et al., 2014). The current review aims to provide professionals with scientific support for choosing an appropriate typeface by collecting these scattered data in a single place. We describe the findings of 34 studies that asked participants to rate the perception of 229 qualities in 635 typefaces, and we created a unified dataset where data are easily comparable across multiple studies. We believe this work will make the messages created by professionals in the design, marketing and communication industries more effective