Why is Reading Slower from CRT Displays than from Paper

Josiane Salaun / Angela Minuto / Brian Haupt / Rich Finn / Lizette Alfaro / John D. Gould

Abstract: Experiments, including our own (Gould et al., 1984; 1986), have shown that people read more slowly from CRT displays than from paper. A series of experiments shows that the explanation centers on the image quality of the characters. Reading speeds, equivalent to those on paper, have been found for CRT displays containing character fonts that resemble those on paper (rather than dot matrix fonts, for example), that have a polarity of dark characters on a light background, that are anti-aliased (i.e., contain grey level), and that are shown on displays with relatively high resolution (e.g., 1000 x 800).

Keywords: Screen output, Reading, Empirical studies, Polarity, Screen resolution, Image quality, CRT, VDT/VDU

Note: Originally published in Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 30th Annual Meeting, 1986, pp. 834-836, (online access).

Republished: G. Perlman, G. K. Green & M. S. Wogalter (Eds) Human Factors Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction: Selections from Proceedings of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meetings, 1983-1994, Santa Monica, California: HFES, 1995, pp. 48-50.