Reading from CRT Displays Can Be as Fast as Reading from Paper

Experiments, including our own (Gould and Grischkowsky, 1984; Gould et al., 1987), have shown that people read more slowly from CRT displays than from paper. This series of six experiments shows why. The explanation centers on the image quality of the characters. Reading speeds equivalent to those on paper occur on 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 × 800). Each of these variables probably contributes something to reading speed improvement, but the trade-offs have not been determined. The results of these experiments, together with our earlier studies, exclude some other general explanations such as possible inherent defects in CRT technology itself or personal variables such as age, experience, or familiarity with reading from CRT displays.