Les Jones

Science > Typography Myth Smashed

So ever since reading Robin Williams's "The Mac is Not a Typewriter" I've believed in what's called the word shape model of word recognition. That theory goes that people recognize words by their overall shape, rather than by the sequence of letters or other sub-units.

Williams used the theory to argue against all-capitalized words, since all caps leads to uniform, un-differentiated blocks. From what I've read in design books and Web sites this theory is wildly popular in design and typography circles.

In a new paper, Kevin Larson, a PhD in psychology who works for Microsoft, examines the competing theories of word recognition. It turns out word shape theory is old hat, and is no longer seriously considered a viable model for word recognition. Via Colby Cosh, whom I'm shamelessly ripping off today.