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Ugly Fonts Vs Beautiful Fonts

21-01-11

Here at Matrix we can be a little bit geeky when it comes to typography, name a typeface and we can picture it instantly or better yet, show us a font and we'll name it! We all have our favourites, so when we heard that ugly fonts like Monotype Corsiva actually have advantages, we were intrigued.

Princeton psychologists recently released a study called Fortune Favors the Bold (and the Italicized): Effects of Disfluency on Educational Outcomes. The study argues that disfluent (ugly, irregular) typefaces can improve retention of information because you process what you’ve read more deeply.

An experiment was conducted giving some classes irregular fonts like Comic Sans Italic and other classes a standard assortment of Helvetica and Arial on classroom materials. A few weeks later they tested the retention of the classes, those with the disfluent fonts performed significantly better. They tested the theory over a range of subjects and over a range of abilities, all with the same outcome except for the subject Chemistry.

So apparently there is a purpose for ugly fonts like Heattenschweiler!

Click here if you’d like to download the report from Princeton

If you need help deciding on a font for your business, let us know. Corporate branding is a specialty of ours!