The Effect of Typeface on the Perception of Onscreen Documents

This study investigated the effect that typeface has on a reader's perception of three different types of onscreen documents (business, email, and youth narrative stories). Participants read documents displayed in either a congruent, neutral, or incongruent typeface. Results suggest that the less congruent the typeface, the more the document was perceived in a negative fashion. That is, the typeface itself affected the perceived personality of the document and the perception of the author; thus, typeface appropriateness should be considered when writing an onscreen document.