How to Use Five Letterforms to Gauge a Typeface's Personality: A Research-Driven Method

Abstract

Technical communicators need to select typefaces that match the tone that they intend for a document. Rather than relying on intuition or personal preference, technical communicators can use a research-driven approach to analyze objectively the extent to which a typeface's personality meshes with the intended tone of a document. This study describes how technical communicators can analyze a typeface's uppercase J and its lowercase a, g, e, and n letterforms—letterforms that are dense with anatomical information—to gauge the extent to which a typeface will contribute a friendly or a professional personality to a document. Technical communicators—both professionals and students—who are armed with this knowledge can move beyond “safe” typefaces like Times New Roman and Helvetica, selecting instead typefaces whose anatomical features generate different kinds of personalities.