Unit 2: How People Read

One chapter explains about the shapes of words and letters in each sentence. People's eyes read more quickly and smoothly, but in shape jumps called saccade. Also, there's an example that uppercase letters may be harder to read than lowercase letters. But, authors can use these uppercase letters to show people shouting. Another chapter talks about the different look of the typefaces such as san serifs and serifs. There is a debate about how to read it smoothly, but there's no rule how to use them because of people’s reading style. There're many typefaces with different shapes. Some typefaces are too decorative making make it hard to read and understand. Another chapter explains about reading a single wide column and multiple columns. Many people prefer to read multiple columns when reading newspapers, magazines, and websites. These are easy to read smoothly and fast compared to the single wide column which takes time to read and possibly losing your place going to the next line.

Definition:

Saccade: The reader's eye move in quick, sharp jumps with short period of stillness in between.

Fixations: The moment of stillness