If you’re using the Verdana typeface in your printed documents, stop now.

There is no need and it is helping destroy the planet.

Verdana takes up about 19% more horizontal space than Arial. So a switch away from Verdana could reduce your paper costs by up to 19%. For further savings, switch to duplex printing at the same time.

If you need a font designed for readability, try the granddaddy of readable fonts – Helvetica – or at a pinch Arial.

Back in the olden days of the interweb, we didn’t have nice big screens with fantastical resolutions. We didn’t have nicely anti-aliased, easily readable text. To fit enough information on a small screen, the fonts used were blocky and tiny. At small font sizes, text displayed in Arial typeface would huddle together and become difficult to read. Not Verdana, with it’s “generous width and spacing”. It was open and easy to read. Soon everyone wanted a bit of the action. All the sans-serif web pages started using Verdana it spread like a virus.

Roll forward to the present and it seems that 1200 pixels is now the minimum screen width that people have. With larger screens, the font can be larger and so easier to read. We no longer need such generosity in our width and spacing. A return to classic typography is due.

Actions

To make a difference, check through the list below and help eradicate Verdana font from the planet.

1. Do not use Verdana in your web pages

   • Simply don’t use it. Replace it with Helvetica or it’s bastard offspring Arial
   • Educate your clients why its bad
   • Change corporate identity guidelines. If you really, really, really, really have to use it on a website, have a print stylesheet which uses something else more elegant

     Here’s how to add a separate print stylesheet:

     			<link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="print"  />
     			

     Here’s the basic content for print.css:

     			body { font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; }
     			

     Helvetica before Arial please. That’s the correct order.

2. Do not use Verdana in reports, presentations etc

   Verdana was designed as a screen font for small displays. It just doesn’t look good in printed material or displayed big on projectors.

3. Remove it from your computer

   • Remove it from your computer
   • Remove it from all computers in your organisation
   • Make sure that your base install image for new PCs in your organisation does not have the Verdana font included.

Further Reading

• Web Matters – Why you should avoid Verdana
• Text Font Readability Study
• Channel Verdana
• Verdana Pro (And Con) by Jeffery Zeldman (added 2011-06-09)

To find out which of the UK’s national newspapers has the best readability, I chose a news story at random that was recently covered in each of the newspapers.

I tested the readability of each newspaper’s article using my own online readability testing tool.

The news articles tested

• Times
  Wildcat strikes over foreign workers spread across Britain
  by Nico Hines, Andrew Norfolk and Christine Buckley.
  Test readability
• Guardian
  Strikes spread across Britain as oil refinery protest escalates
  by Audrey Gillan, Andrew Sparrow and agencies.
  Test readability
• Independent
  Refinery strikes spread across UK
  by Press Association.
  Test readability
• Daily Mail
  Mass walkouts across Britain as anger grows over influx of foreign workers
  by DAILY MAIL REPORTER.
  Test readability
• The Sun
  Oil refinery strikes spread
  by STAFF REPORTER.
  Test readability

I only tested the readability of the news article – not the whole page – to prevent the scores being skewed by e.g. the navigation system on each page.

It’s worth noting that the articles were tested on the day the story broke. It seems that most of, if not all of the stories have been edited since. Often the title of the piece has changed. In some cases, the authors have changed or since been identified.

Readability Indicators Used

Scores were given for the following readability indices:

• Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease
• Flesch-Kincaid Grade level Score
• Gunning-Fog Index
• SMOG Index
• Coleman-Liau Index
• Automated Readability Index

Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease is a 0-100 scale where a higher score gives a greater ease of reading.
All the other indicators are based on US school grade level system e.g. a score of 4 suggests 4 years of schooling is needed to understand the article. A score of 10 suggests that a 15-16 year old would understand the text.

Results

Readability

Interpretation

• The Times, Guardian and The Sun are well matched for readability
• Each is rated as top for 2 out of the 6 indicators measured
• The Independent is consistently worst for readability – the scores suggest a better/longer education is needed!
• The Daily Mail is in the middle ground throughout

Text Statistics

Interpretation

The Independent provides the most in-depth analysis.

• It also uses the most “complex words” – with 3 or more syllables
• You’ll need to print this out and sit with a cup of tea somewhere.

The Sun is very concise and to the point.

• You’ll be able to quickly scan through the article on the website in a glance
• It’s written in a style that suits the web.

And the winner is…

The Sun!

• The easy to read, bite sized format is perfect for use on the web
• They got it right first time!
• Other newspapers have since largely corrected their less readable text. Noticeably the Daily Mail. Their article now scores highly for readability

One last thing: Though this can be perceived as a glowing endorsement of The Sun, it’s just a bit of fun. I prefer to get my news from the BBC News website and I know, I’ve not even bothered to compare the readability of their article.

Test the readability of this post!

I’ve just released the first version of The Readability Testing Tool.   It takes either a supplied URI, or directly inputted text.

Indices measured

• Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease
• Flesch Kincaid Grade Level
• Gunning Fog Score
• Coleman Liau Index
• Automated Readability Index.

Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease is a scale of 0-100. A high score means the text is easier to read. Low scores suggest the text is complicated to understand. All the other indices are based on the US school grade level system.

Features

I’ve added features that aren’t available anywhere else.

1. Readability testing by referer.
   Allows you to add a link to the site on your blog, so that you can rapidly view the readability scores
2. Readability testing a specific part of the web page.
   If the article text in your blog is contained in e.g. div#content, this can be used to test only the article text.  This means that the result is not affected by the navigational elements.

Future plans

Future releases are planned with e.g.

• API for AJAX requests returning JSON/XML results.
• Integration with other online services

Suggest improvements or comment below.