Predicting the appropriateness of a typeface on the basis of its multimodal features.

Walker, Peter and Smith, S. and Livingston, A. (1986) Predicting the appropriateness of a typeface on the basis of its multimodal features. Information Design Journal and Document Design, 5 (1). pp. 29-42. ISSN 1871-1138

Abstract

It is proposed that the appropriateness of a typeface is partly determined by the extent to which it shares multi-modal features with the concept that it represents. Exploring a number of professions as the concepts to be represented, we offer evidence to support this hypothesis. We demonstrate that n on-specialists discriminate a variety of display typefaces and professions in terms of a common set of multimodal features. In addition, on the basis of the extent to which each typeface shares multi-modal features with each profession, we successfully predict the judged appropriateness of various typefaces to represent each profession.