How can we make sure we reach our audience? Speak in their language, and in this case, use the font that works best for them. Today I’m going to talk about fonts for struggling readers.
If you know anyone who works with fonts, artists, printers, layout people, and the average internet snob, you’ve heard (or read) them complain about comic sans or some other font they hate. People praise Helvetica and other fonts they deem cool, yet often they don’t discuss what a font can do for readability.
opendyslexic.org is a website that designed an open source font that makes reading easier for dyslexics. Imagine that, a font that makes it easier for dyslexics to read! If you ever knew a person with dyslexia you know what a challenge reading can be, you know how hard it is, and how they end up missing out on the joy that is reading. This font could change their lives. You can even install the font on your webpage, and thanks to google fonts and html5 people will see it even if they don’t have the font installed.
There is another font out there for dyslexics that is a pay font, it’s a bit expensive and while I don’t begrudge anyone wanting to be paid for their work, when it comes to reading everyone should have access to a font to help them. That’s my opinion, others will vary. I’m working on a children’s book, when I saw this font I decided I would offer two printing options, regular, and this font. If it costs more to produce (because the dyslexic font prints will print in shorter runs) I have decided I will eat the cost. It’s worth it to get kids reading.
What about for non dyslexic kids? Often people think comic sans and cartoony fonts are good for kids, and they are half right. The more relaxed a font is, or the more fun looking, the more accessible it is to kids, but it still needs a strong structure and shape for them to develop.
My favorite font for kids is a font called Schoolhouse. I got my copy of the font a million years ago of a font disc called teacher fonts. It is a pay font, but you can get the older version of the font open source off cnet. There are two variations of the font, Z, and D. Or in my old copy, Cursive, or Printed. These are the fonts we grew up learning penmanship with. In this font you can get dotted lines, letters with the arrows, or just the font. It’s easy and familiar to read.
One school in the UK even hired someone to make a font for them, a font that worked with all kids and read well. You can learn more about that here on their website. Their font is a pay font, most likely to pay back what they invested, and to help the school, but if you are an organization you can contact them directly, and they may have alternative programs, but they don’t make that public. If you visit their site you can see the site is in their font, it is very easy to read and well spaced.
Some other great fonts are Sassoon Primary and Gil Sans Infant, for san serif fonts. You would use san serif fonts for headings and things you wanted to stand out. Not a body of text, but worksheets could be done in san serif. For body text you want something with serifs, it’s much easier to read, you can also try Bembo Schoolbook or Plantin Schoolbook. These fonts were all made for kids, so they were designed with this idea in mind.
What if I can’t install fonts on my computer? Many users don’t have access to change their fonts on their own computer because it’s owned by their employer or they just don’t know how. You are not out of luck, you just need to learn to pick well. You want the font to have a lower case a displayed as we teach kids to write it, a circle with a line, no overhanging arch. Next you want the g to look as we teach them to write it, and lastly you want the uppercase I and the lower case l to not look identical. Look for fonts with mono or schoolhouse in the name, often they are a good fit. On a PC Cambria which I believed comes with a PC, or at least MS word, is a surprisingly good font. On a Mac Casual is a good fun and relaxed font, as is Chalkboard. Century gothic is OK, it works well except the uppercase I and lowercase l are too similar.
