Gill Dyslexic — a $2 dyslexic font based on the work behind Dyslexie

http://www.pixelscript.net/gilldyslexic/

by _phred • 15 years ago

50 22 15 years ago

CrazedGeek• 15 years ago

Anyone else think that Dyslexie was easier to read?

Alterlife• 15 years ago

I did find it easier to read... but I really wonder how much of the effect comes from the size of the sample text. It's huge!

The scaled down version is a little harder to read: http://imgur.com/Xh3Mt. (ctrl + mousewheel to resize the image on the page direct)... and here again, I'm not sure how much of the difficulty to read the smaller version comes because of quality lost from scaling.

It would be nice to see a screen-shot the font as it is rendered in a smaller typeface.

stefanve2• 15 years ago

here you go:

http://imgur.com/a/HEADE

last one is original for reference. original text: http://www.economist.com/node/18958397

pixelscript4• 15 years ago

If you want to try it out with different sizes you can go to this page:

http://www.pixelscript.net/gilldyslexic/demo.html

skrebbel• 15 years ago

The text uses the term "research" with respect to Dyslexie. The only research performed was an M.Sc. thesis that showed that it is slightly easier to read than Arial.

ristretto• 15 years ago

I would be interested to see more related research too. We spend far too much time reading text so even a slight increase in readability is important, even for non-dyslexics

pixelscript4• 15 years ago

I would like to do research on my font too, I don't have any academic links or funds for it though.

gus_massa• 15 years ago

In the thesis, it was not clear that the new font was easier to read than Arial.

[From a comment I made in the original submission.]

I read the tables in the thesis. There are 12 comparations between the Arial and the Dyslexie fonts, but only 2 of then have p<.1 and none of them has p<.05. So it is very difficult to know if the differences between the fonts are real or come from random noise.

atgm• 15 years ago

I can't read this without discomfort; it really feels like the letters are swimming/waving back and forth as I read.

acqq• 15 years ago

I actually felt nausea trying to read longer samples linked in:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2815786

But I'm not dyslexic.

petercooper• 15 years ago

My dyslexic wife just found it unnerving but that doesn't mean it's not better in practice :-) I found it odd, myself, it seems to "move" about, which is weird since I'm not dyslexic and am fine with ordinary type. Almost like the situation has been reversed!

fragsworth• 15 years ago

I had the same problem, but I think I may have been biased by the title and expected a "dyslexic font" to be difficult to read, so as I read it, it seemed very weird.

bilalhusain• 15 years ago

I am not dyslexic (but a little sick right now) and it almost gives me a motion sickness feeling.

stefanve2• 15 years ago

It looks a bit to much like comic sans to me (aka ugly :) ). Normally I just make the text bigger, that seems to work pretty good as well. I would pay up to 50E for a good looking font based on this idea

edit: I had 2$ to spare and it seems to work. it is easier for me to read with this font. not sure if it is better than time new romans

edit2:

screen shots in smaller font http://imgur.com/a/HEADE

last one is original for reference. original text: http://www.economist.com/node/18958397

dlss2• 15 years ago

Just a buy now button with no license?

Could I use this on a webpage?

_phred• 15 years ago

I sent the author a note asking about that, and whether or not he'd be willing to license under a Creative Commons or similar. If this technique works for dyslexics, then it'd be great to have a free version out there!

lawlit• 15 years ago

I find it quiet greedy and tightwad to ask for money for this thing, for 2 reasons: 1) It will help sick people. 2) It's based on other people research.

EDIT: think about those who made great software (Linux, emacs, etc.) and made it available for everyone, for free, and think about a guy who ask 2$ for a font that might help sick people.

pixelscript4• 15 years ago

Hi creator of the font here - A Creative Commons doesn't suit me, but I do allow people to embed it in web pages if they give credit :)

stuffchunk• 15 years ago

Funny thing the downloaded file is named Gill_Dyselxic.ttf.

I was looking for a font like this after seeing this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLtYFcHx7ec. Two dollar is a steal!

hm2k• 15 years ago

I'm Dyslexic and I don't have any trouble with reading any fonts.

To me, this font just looks like Comic Sans. I see no added benefit in terms of readability.

Gill Dyslexic — a $2 dyslexic font based on the work behind Dyslexie

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