Effects of Contrast and Character Size upon Legibility of Japanese Text Stimuli Presented on Visual Display Terminal

We examined effects of contrast and character size upon legibility of Japanese text stimuli presented on visual display terminal (VDT). In the experiment, three different character sizes were employed and the text stimulus was presented under a variety of conditions where contrast between the text and the background changed. Reading speed and the rate of readable characters were measured. Subjective rating for legibility was also evaluated. Results showed that legibility increases with luminance contrast for all character sizes examined here. A strong correlation was found between the subjective rating index and reading speed.

[1]  D. Hood,et al.  Psychophysical tests of models of the response function , 1979, Vision Research.

[2]  P. Whittle.  Increments and decrements: Luminance discrimination , 1986, Vision Research.

[3]  Masami Funakawa.  Psychophysical Experiments on the Legibility of Letters , 2000 .

[4]  Gordon E. Legge,et al.  Psychophysics of reading—V. The role of contrast in normal vision , 1987, Vision Research.

[5]  S. Shioiri,et al.  Nonlinearity in color space measured by apparent motion , 2000, Perception & psychophysics.

[6]  Mitsuo Ikeda,et al.  Span of recognition in reading , 1978, Vision Research.

[7]  Gordon E. Legge,et al.  Light and dark bars; contrast discrimination , 1983, Vision Research.

[8]  Naoyuki Osaka,et al.  Eye fixation and saccade during kana and kanji text reading: Comparison of English and Japanese text processing. , 1989 .

[10]  Youko Inoue,et al.  The Optimal Illuminance for Reading: Effects of Age and Visual Acuity on Legibility and Brightness , 1998 .

[11]  G E Legge,et al.  Psychophysics of reading. XV: Font effects in normal and low vision. , 1996, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[12]  Gordon E. Legge,et al.  Psychophysics of reading—XVI. The visual span in normal and low vision , 1997, Vision Research.

[13]  G E Legge,et al.  Psychophysics of reading. XI. Comparing color contrast and luminance contrast. , 1990, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics and image science.

[14]  Ahmet Çakir,et al.  Visual Display Terminals: A Manual Covering Ergonomics, WorkPlace Design, Health and Safety, Task Organization , 1980 .

[15]  G. Legge,et al.  Psychophysics of reading—I. Normal vision , 1985, Vision Research.

[16]  T Ishida,et al.  Temporal properties of information extraction in reading studied by a text-mask replacement technique. , 1989, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics and image science.