Catalog Doctor: Good Readability Makes a Healthy Catalog
The extra shapes on the ends of serif letters add to its readability by helping the brain discern differences in letter shape instantly. Before readers are even conscious of it, their brains identify words and their meanings at skimming speed. Sans-serif type is cleaner with fewer shape differences, and therefore has fewer visual cues for your reader's subconscious brain to translate — meaning fewer words are translated in the high-speed catalog skimmer's brain.
- Companies:
- McIntyre Direct
Susan J. McIntyre is Founder and Chief Strategist of McIntyre Direct, a catalog agency and consultancy in Portland, Oregon offering complete creative, strategic, circulation and production services since 1991. Susan's broad experience with cataloging in multi-channel environments, plus her common-sense, bottom-line approach, have won clients from Vermont Country Store to Nautilus to C.C. Filson. A three-time ECHO award winner, McIntyre has addressed marketers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, has written and been quoted in publications worldwide, and is a regular columnist for Retail Online Integration magazine and ACMA. She can be reached at 503-286-1400 or susan@mcintyredirect.com.
