WOBURN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: TYPE) today announced it has become a founding member of the Clear Information Presentation Consortium (Clear-IP), a consortium created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) AgeLab. Monotype and MIT have collaborated on research on the topic of typography and legibility in quick glance environments, researching topics such as the influence of typeface style, size, weight, width and line spacing, as well as polarity and ambient light on legibility. Clear-IP is the evolution of Monotype’s and MIT’s research collaboration that started in 2012. By expanding membership and pooling resources, Clear-IP can broaden its research and explore emerging topics related to legibility, type and design.
Clear-IP aims to drive research that investigates legibility and design questions relating to reading in brief glances. Reading in short bursts of attention is increasingly prevalent as smartphones, smartwatches, fitness bands, automotive and digital dashboards, advertisements, product labeling and packaging, tablets and other screens are glanced at hundreds of times a day.
“The glance is the new currency of the age and we need to know how to design for it. The one thing that we keep finding out again and again is that legibility is relative and it depends on many factors that often interact with one another whether it is typeface style, size, weight, color, polarity or even ambient light. When it comes to the design of interfaces for reading in quick glances, we need to know how to balance all of these factors in order to present clear information to the reader,” commented Nadine Chahine, Ph.D., Type Director and Legibility Expert at Monotype and member of the Clear-IP board of directors.
Despite expanding consumer device obsession, there is a lack of research to guide design decisions on how information is best read and retained in glances. Typographers, designers and interface engineers are only beginning to address the technological challenges and psychological implications of a fast-paced lifestyle that has fundamentally altered how information is perceived and processed. Clear-IP aims to bring together a wide variety of stakeholders with common interests in having empirical data to guide decisions on typography and design. Through scientific research, Clear-IP will be a publicly recognized authority on best practices for the application of typography in graphic design and bring precompetitive, data-driven clarity to the complexity of design decisions.
“Through our work with Monotype, we’ve found that certain type styles have an impact on how fast people can read information under specific conditions. However, this work is only the beginning in learning how type, design, technology, environmental and human factors play into glance-based reading. With Clear-IP, we now have an organization dedicated to isolating and understanding the tradeoffs surrounding the questions of modern typographic design and information presentation. The time is right to reach across industries and work together with other companies and influencers to establish best practices for quick-glance reading in places like automotive displays, wearables, labeling, advertisements and other mediums,” commented Bryan Reimer, Ph.D. Research Scientist at MIT AgeLab and member of the Clear-IP board of directors. “Text legibility is one of those things that affects us hundreds of times throughout our day without us ever really thinking about it. Few people are really aware that every letter you’ve ever read, every line of text, was meticulously designed. The shape, weight, color, contrast and a hundred other things are guided by the invisible rules of human perception. Our hope with Clear-IP is that we can pool the resources of diverse stakeholders to learn more about how those rules operate, and how they can be optimized for modern applications and use cases.”
Clear-IP is targeting members representing a wide range of industries, including design, technology, drug makers, financial services providers, automobile manufacturers and their suppliers and other organizations with the need to effectively communicate information through modern interfaces, labels and advertisements. Google joined as Clear-IP’s first full member. Members will help define research priorities, receive priority access to all findings, data and research materials, and will have the ability to discuss research findings with thought leaders, scientists, typographic and design experts and other Clear-IP members in a non-competitive context.
More information on Clear-IP research and member benefits is located at http://agelab.mit.edu/clear.
Clear-IP research summaries can be found at http://agelab.mit.edu/legibility/research.
About Monotype
Monotype is a leader in empowering expression
and engagement through a combination of type, technology and expertise.
Headquartered in Woburn, Mass., Monotype provides customers worldwide
with typeface solutions for a broad range of creative applications and
consumer devices. The company’s libraries and e-commerce sites are home
to many of the most widely used typefaces – including the Helvetica®,
Frutiger®
and Univers®
families – as well as the next generation of type designs. Further
information is available at www.monotype.com.
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Monotype, Helvetica and Frutiger are trademarks of Monotype Imaging Inc. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Univers is a trademark of Monotype GmbH registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2017 Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. All rights reserved.
