摘要：Aim: It is a long-lasting dispute whether serif or sans serif fonts are more legible. However, different fonts vary on numerous visual parameters, not just serifs. We investigated whether a difference in word identification can be attributed to the presence or absence of serifs or to the contrast of the letter stroke. Method: Participants performed a word-recognition two-interval, forced-choice task (Exp. 1) and a classic lexical decision task (Exp. 2). In both experiments the word stimuli were set with four new fonts, which were developed to isolate the stylistic features of serif and letter-stroke contrast. Two measures (i.e., font-size threshold & sensitivity) were analysed. Results: The threshold measure of both experiments yielded a single significant main effect of stroke contrast such that low stroke contrast elicited lower than high stroke contrast. The sensitivity measure of Experiment 1 yielded a single significant effect of the interaction between serifs and stroke contrast. Specifically, at the sans-serif level, low stroke contrast revealed better sensitivity, relative to high stroke contrast. At the serif level, the opposite stroke contrast pattern was observed. Conclusion: Sans serif fonts with low stroke contrast yield better performance and if a serif font is used, high stroke contrast yields better performance than low stroke contrast. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
