译者：snlchina
本文由snlchina翻译自英文Wiki百科全书，转载使用请遵循GNU自由文档许可。

andare often confused. Readability is most often and more properly used to describe the ease with which written language is read and understood – it concerns the difficulty of the language itself, not its appearance. Factors that affect readability include sentence and word length, and the frequency of uncommon words.

可读性和易读性经常被混淆。可读性通常用来形容某种书面语言阅读和理解的容易程度——它关乎这种语言本身的难度，而非其外观。 影响可读性的因素包括词句的长度，以及非常用词的出现频度。

In contrast, legibility describes how easily or comfortably a typeset text can be read. It is not connected with content or language, but rather with the size and appearance of the printed or displayed text.

与之相对，易读性描述的是排印文本阅读时的轻松和舒适程度。它和语言内容无关，却与印刷或文本显示的尺寸和外观联系密切。

Studies of legibility have examined a wide range of factors including type size, type design (for example, comparing serif vs sans serif type, italic type vs roman type), line length, line spacing, colour contrast, the design of right-hand edge (for example, justification (straight right hand edge) vs ranged left, and whether hyphenated). Legibility research was published from the late nineteenth century on, but the overall finding has been that the reading process is remarkably robust, and that significant differences are hard to find. So comparative studies of seriffed vs sans serif type, or justified vs unjustified type, have failed to settle the argument over which is best. (Serifs are the small cross-strokes at the end of letters in fonts such as Times; sans serifs fonts, such as Arial, are the ones without these cross strokes). Unfortunately, the fashion for legibility research was over by the time that revolutionary changes in printing and display technology (ie, laser printing and PC display screens) made it actually of potential interest.

对易读性的研究涵盖诸多因素，例如字号，字体设计（比如，衬线字体和无衬线字体，斜体和正体的区别），行长，行间距，色彩对比，右边界的设计（例如，右边界完全齐行vs简单的左对齐，以及是否采用连字符）。虽然对易读性的研究在19世纪晚期就已经发布，但普遍的共识是：人的阅读过程惊人的强悍，以至于几乎没什么明显的区别。因此比较研究衬线字体和无衬线字体，或者齐行与不齐行，到底哪个更好，始终无法得出定论。不幸的是，当印刷和显示技术发生巨大变革（如激光照排和PC屏幕显示）的时代来临时，易读性研究的风潮已经过去，导致（易读性研究）实际上成为了一种只具有“潜在价值”的研究。

Legibility is usually measured through speed of reading, with comprehension scores used to check for effectiveness (ie, not a rushed or careless read). For example, Miles Tinker, who published numerous studies from the 1930s to the 1960s, used a speed of reading test that required participants to spot incongruous words as an effectiveness filter.

易读性一般通过阅读速度来衡量，用阅读理解的得分来检验阅读效率。比如，在20世纪30-60年代发布了著名研究成果的Miles Tinker采用的是一种阅读速度测试，其检验阅读的效率的方法是让受试者在文中寻找前后不一致的字眼。

These days, legibility research tends to be limited to critical issues, or the testing of specific design solutions (for example, when new typefaces are developed). Examples of critical issues include typefaces (also called fonts) for people with visual impairment, and typefaces for highway signs, or for other conditions where legibility may make a key difference.

现今的易读性研究基本上仅限于某些关键性事务，或是某些特定设计方案的测试（如开发某种新字型时）。这些关键事务包括为视觉障碍者设计的字型（或者说字体fonts），还有高速路标识，以及其他易读性起决定性作用的场合。

Much of the legibility research literature is somewhat atheoretical - various factors were tested individually or in combination (inevitably so, as the different factors are interdependent), but many tests were carried out in the absence of a model of reading or visual perception. Some typographers believe that the overall word shape is very important in readability, and that letter by letter recognition (sometimes known as parallel letterwise recognition) is either wrong, less important, or not the entire picture. Studies that distinguish between the two models have favored parallel letterwise recognition, and the latter is widely accepted by cognitive psychologists (citation?).

大部分的易读性研究著述都多少缺乏理论基础——各种（影响易读性的）因素都单独地或者组合起来进行测试（这是不可避免的，因为有些因素之间是相互依存的），但许多测试在执行的时候都缺乏一个阅读模型或是视觉识别模型。一些排印人员认为，词的整体形状对于易读性而言至关重要，而逐个字母的识别（有时称为相似字母间的识别）是错误的、无足轻重的，或不完全的。对两种模型的区分研究更倾向于相似字母间的识别，而后者已经被认知心理学家所广泛认同。

Some commonly agreed findings of legibility research include: text set in lower case is more legible than text set all in upper case (capitals), presumably because lower case letter structures and word shapes are more distinctive, having greater saliency with the presence of extenders (ascenders, descenders and other projecting parts); regular upright type (roman) is found to be more legible that italics, contrast, without dazzling brightness, has also been found to be important, with black on yellow/cream being most effective; positive images (eg, black on white) are easier to read than negative or reversed (eg, white on black); the upper portions of letters play a stonger part than the lower portions in the recognition process; legibility is compromised by letterspacing, word spacing and leading that are too tight or too loose. Generous vertical space separates lines of text, making it easier for the eye to distinguish one line from the next, or previous line. Poorly designed fonts and those that are too tightly or loosely fitted can also result in poor legibility.

在易读性研究方面达成的共识包括：小写字母的文本要比全大写字母的文本易读，大致是由于小写字母的结构和词语形状更容易区分，特征更明显——带有延展性的笔画（ascenders上伸笔画, descenders下伸笔画、以及其他的伸展性笔画部件）；标准体字形（正体roman）的易读性要优于斜体；对比很重要——不要用那些耀眼的发光效果；在黄色/奶油色底上使用黑色文字最有效；阳文（白底黑字）要比阴文（黑底白字）易读；在识别过程中，字母的上部形状要比下部形状发挥更重要的作用；字母间距、词间距和行间距太密集或太松散也会降低易读性。充足的行间距可以隔开每行文字，使得眼睛容易区分上一行或下一行。设计糟糕的字体，以及过密或过松的排版都会导致糟糕的易读性。

本文由snlchina翻译自英文Wiki百科全书，转载使用请遵循。

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