Tips to improve the readability of your products

Avoid white text on black backgrounds

White text on a black background can be hard to make out due to the way reflected light scatters into neighbouring words. It is also much harder to read for people with astigmatism as it appears blurry. Where possible, stick with dark text on a white background.

Avoid pure black text

Using pure black text can cause eye strain due to the 100% brightness contrast between black and white. Where possible, use very dark grey instead of black for the font colour to make your products easier on the eye.

Avoid justifying text (where possible)

It can look neater than left-aligned text, but is harder to read - especially at pace - due to the uneven spacing between words and the fact that all the lines being equal length makes it harder to keep track of which line was last read.

Line Breaks

Nothing is less appealing to readers than a wall of text. Keep paragraphs short and punchy where possible.

Paragraph width

The optimal paragraph width for ease of reading is between 50 and 70 characters, or around eight to ten words per line.

This is especially pertinent when producing email products, as if you do not apply some kind of formatting the text will cover the full width of the screen, forcing the reader to move their head from side to side to read it like they are watching a tennis match.

Spacing

For optimal readability, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends:

• Line spacing should be at least a space-and-a-half within paragraphs. So around 150 percent or 1.5 times the font size.

• Spacing following paragraphs should be at least two times the font size.

• Spacing between letters should be at least 0.12 times the font size.

• Spacing between words should be at least 0.16 times the font size.