Appearance, clarity, acceptance and beauty of jagged letters on computer screens

The acceptance, appearance, clarity and beauty of letters with jagged edges to be shown on liquid crystal display (LCD) computer screens were determined. Two psychophysical experiments were conducted. In both, 18 participants, judged texts presented in different simulated screen resolutions on LCD screens. The two experiments differed according to the viewing distances, short and long, and in how the different measurable screen resolutions were simulated on the screen. Judgements varied as a function of jaggedness. The observers were more tolerant of judging the Clarity scale as compared to the Aesthetics, Jaggedness, and Appearance scales. It was not possible to combine the results from the two different viewing distances, presumably because of different eye movements. For both distances Aesthetics was important for the judgements of Appearance. The recommendation for future requirements for jagged edges on LCD displays is that the minimum resolution of a screen should be at least 5 pixels/mm.