Comparison of Absolute Threshold of Readability Among Ten Persian Fonts in RSVP Reading

The topic of this study is to compare the absolute threshold of readability among ten commonly used Persian fonts in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) reading techniques task at three reading speed (100, 300 and 500 words per minute). RSVP is a cognitive task design method that is also used in fast reading technologies. This research had two goals: First, determine the optimal Persian font from a visual ergonomic perspective and others investigate the effect of demographic variables (age, gender and education degree) and some cognitive abilities (memory and processing speed) on total numbers of reading errors. In this study, for the first time, the concept of absolute threshold of readability was introduced as an objective indicator in comparing fonts. Twenty subjects participated in this study with ages ranging from 11-79 years and degrees from undergraduate to PhD. The results shown that Iran Sans 5.5 is the optimal font from visual ergonomic perspective. It was also found that age (demographic) and short-term memory (cognitive ability) are correlated with total numbers of reading errors.