POLL: Which text format do you find easier to read with ME/CFS blurred vision?

[Abha]

Many ME/CFS patients suffer from some degree of blurred vision.

@Hip
I have blurred vision at times, especially in early morning on wakening....takes me ages to get going!

I have lots of allergies(but only Dust one recognised by NHS?)...I think yeast (high in tests)causes some of these problems(I think my BBB was messed up with Malathion contact...and thus inner areas of brain are affected causing the problem....but Rickettsia and other factors may cause it too including enterovirus/hormones(?))

TEXT 2 was easier for me to read.....but only a minor difference

 

[Moof]

@Hip, it does help a little, but using narrower letters and/or a lower X line makes it very much easier. Typefaces with wider letters are more difficult and take longer to read, which causes more fatigue, which in turn means it's harder to absorb information.

Seriffed faces are usually used in print books and newspapers because they are easier to read than sans-serif ones, but this doesn't alway apply when reading from a screen. The face below is still easier for me to read onscreen than either version of Text 2:




Houses of Parliament Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, steps from the venue Friday the 2nd of June was a big day for me, I’d never been to a medical research conference before, and I’d been looking forward to it as a major life event, no matter what the content. As ME patients we are used to being ignored, abused and denied, or at best fed crumbs, but this conference was first class.

Top researchers from around the world presented with intelligence and passion, and Invest in ME did a terrific job of organising the conference. Everything went very smoothly.

Olav Mella is on record as saying this is the conference with the most science, and he would be well placed to judge. As a very interested layperson, I found that one or two of the presentations went rather over my head. Most were understandable however and I learned some things, although there wasn’t much new news for people who have followed every research paper.




(Note that I've also removed the capital F and C on 'first class', as things like that are so distracting for autistic brains that they also make text hard to read! I've read entire books and been able to remember nothing except the grammatical and typographical lacunae when I've finished... )

 

[lafarfelue]

Also, re science behind blurry vision; MCAS can make the insides of eyelids slough off significantly, which, along with often reduced eye lubrication, creates an actual physical barrier.

 

[Wonkmonk]

It's very interesting that these seems to make a big difference for some. Perhaps PR could offer an option to have threads shown with different settings.

For myself, there is no difference at all. Even when looking closely, at first I couldn't say what is even different between version 1 and 2. Only after learning what the actual difference is, I saw that there is in fact a difference.

 

[alex3619]

Do you use a browser extension or custom stylesheet to create the white text on a blue background? Is that how you read the PR forum?

I use Xenforo blue or something, one of the standard variants on the forum. The text box is actually greyish not blue, but a lot is bluish.

 

[Hip]

What do you guys think about the Gill Sans font:

Here is Gill Sans with increased letter and word spacing:

Here is Gill Sans with normal spacing:

 

[Moof]

For me, normal kerning on Gill Sans is much easier to read than when it's increased. Gill by far the hardest work of all the faces we've looked at, as the characters are so wide; if I had to read more than a paragraph written in it (specially if it were kerned as well), I'd have to paste the text into a word processor doc so I could change it.

It's at least partly connected to what people's eyes are accustomed to. Wide faces like Gill haven't been used much in either body or headline text for donkey's years, so we're not used to seeing them; also, I do most of my reading from hard copy books, which obviously use seriffed faces. ME folk who're unable to read books very often may be far more comfortable with sans-serif faces.

 

[Hip]

Gill by far the hardest work of all the faces we've looked at, as the characters are so wide; if I had to read more than a paragraph written in it (specially if it were kerned as well), I'd have to paste the text into a word processor doc so I could change it.

So Gill Sans you generally find hard to read? That's interesting. When I systematically went through all the 200 or so fonts available on my Mac to check for readability, for me Gill Sans was the clear winner.

After my viral encephalitis in 2005 I developed severe ADHD (though it's improved a bit now), and consequently found it very difficult to read and comprehend even simple 3 sentence emails from friends. ADHD is a neurological issue rather than a blurred vision issue, but the combination of ADHD, blurred vision and the ME/CFS brain fog made reading very difficult for me

That's when I started experimenting with font typefaces, colors, letter spacing and line spacing, to try to maximize text readability.

But it seems clear from this thread that font setups that are good for one person may be bad for the next.

 

[wigglethemouse]

For me Arial font (darker and larger than Gill Sans Font), letter spacing 4. word spacing 1, line spacing 1, text shade 0.

My eyesight gets worse when symptoms ramp. Always thought it was energy related, but the red blood cell deformability was something I hadn't thought of.

 

[lafarfelue]

Gill by far the hardest work of all the faces we've looked at, as the characters are so wide; if I had to read more than a paragraph written in it (specially if it were kerned as well), I'd have to paste the text into a word processor doc so I could change it.

Agreed. I hadn't realised this was about typefaces as well. I use almost exclusively Arial for screen reading and writing. I'll use Times New Roman or Georgia for serifed where I have to. With the writing I do for work, there are preferred typefaces that we need to write in, depending on the reader; these tend to be Arial, Tahoma, Verdana and similar.

It's at least partly connected to what people's eyes are accustomed to.

Spot on. Most commonly these days, people are accustomed to typefaces like (but not limited to) Arial, Helvetica, or Georgia for serif.

Random trivia: A lot of people (read: designers) joke about Comic Sans being an awful typeface, but it's often rated as being one of the most easily legible for kids and those with lower literacy skills.

 

[Moof]

@Hip, I sympathise! Reading's hard for me too. I have autism with ADD (at least I missed out on the H!) with ME on top, and if I work really hard at it, I can make myself read for 10 minutes That's why I call in on PR so often; at any one time I've got a couple of books, at least two TV programmes, a social media page, and maybe a radio documentary on the go, but I need to keep switching between them or my brain hurts!

To be honest, the only way to optimise typefaces for any group of people is to make it possible to change them on web sites, along with backgrounds, levels of contrast, and colour. I've no idea how to do this, but I think you can do so in a basic way on some message boards. I get so distracted that I even have a blank browser window covering the sidebar on PR – changes of colour and photos just draw my eyes away all the time, and it's exhausting. If I've got a long article to read in a difficult typeface, I'll often paste it into a Word doc to make it readable and remove distractions.

The reason most people use Arial/Helvetica on web sites and correspondence is that it's the best available compromise for the broadest range of people – but that doesn't mean it suits everyone. There's a specially designed typeface called Dyslexie that I used to use when I worked on arts projects with groups of dyslexic kids; I could never compose text in it, though, because it's a ruddy nightmare to read if you don't happen to be dyslexic!

 

[wigglethemouse]

I need to keep switching between them or my brain hurts!

That's interesting @Moof . I need to keep switching too. Hadn't thought about my reading habits that way.

 

[lafarfelue]

If I've got a long article to read in a difficult typeface, I'll often paste it into a Word doc to make it readable and remove distractions.

Hope it's ok to make a suggestion/ask... have you considered using something like Pocket to help with reading articles? It's basically a platform that strips away most of the 'design elements ' and ads etc from articles you save to it. It's customisable too; I have mine set up with a dark background and light font. Can be used via webpage or phone app too, which is very useful when I'm lying in bed.

I save a lot of my reading to that, and it helps enormously with reducing fatigue and over stimulation.

 

[Hip]

There's a specially designed typeface called Dyslexie that I used to use when I worked on arts projects with groups of dyslexic kids

Yeah I had a look at Dyslexie (well the free variant called OpenDyslexic) a while ago, but it did not work for me. There is another free dyslexia font called Lexie Readable which I find better than Dyslexie:

This is the Lexie Readable font for dyslexics:

This is the OpenDyslexic font (a free version similar to the Dyslexie font):

Although interestingly a recent study found that Dyslexie "neither benefits nor impedes the reading process of children with and without dyslexia".

 

[Moof]

Random trivia: A lot of people (read: designers) joke about Comic Sans being an awful typeface, but it's often rated as being one of the most easily legible for kids and those with lower literacy skills.

It's funny, isn't it! I'm not a trained designer, I just did typography and layout at work, but designers' snobbery always made me giggle no end. It's not only children with Comic Sans – I also used it for project updates for primary school teachers, as I found they could scan and take in information quickly when it was set out in something they were used to seeing. The trendies in the design department were scathing when they saw my bulletins...

 

[lafarfelue]

The trendies in the design department were scathing when they saw my bulletins...

Hahhahahahh that's great! I really detest how classist and ableist this sort of judgement can be. I'd have been high fiving you!

 

[Moof]

Hope it's ok to make a suggestion/ask... have you considered using something like Pocket to help with reading articles? It's basically a platform that strips away most of the 'design elements ' and ads etc from articles you save to it. It's customisable too; I have mine set up with a dark background and light font. Can be used via webpage or phone app too, which is very useful when I'm lying in bed.

Thanks, that's a helpful reminder. I'm still following the same habits I used when web sites were first invented...there was nothing like Pocket then, and some of the layouts were hilariously grim!

 

[Moof]

Hahhahahahh that's great! I really detest how classist and ableist this sort of judgement can be. I'd have been high fiving you!

...though you might be faintly disappointed when I won't use the word 'font' to describe a typeface!

I started work in the newspaper industry in the 1970s, when type was set with hot lead, and I'd have been slapped around the head with a wet copy of the Saturday sport for that! (Not that it would ever have occurred to anyone to confuse them, as when you're working with physical type, they'e entirely different things.)

 

[Diwi9]

Just want to add a little bit more about why I find spacing helpful visually, because it is not just about blurring.

I used to read text in blocks, now I have to read word by word...it's slow and arduous. When I'm confronted with a wall of text...it all smooshes together and I lose my place. I rarely read long posts on PR, or will just skim them, because it would fry me to try to do more.

This effect may be one reason more spacing is easier for me. On occasion, I have a good day and can read in bulk with comprehension.

 

[taniaaust1]

My answer was the first one is much better for me, this was even though my sight was blurred (but in my case I have an astigmatism anyway which causes that even when the ME is not causing blurrier vision for me.

Why even with the blurry sight the first one is better for me was due to the ME brain issues. It is harder on my brain to read the spaced out letters of the second example