As digital television becomes available, our televisions and personal computers at home will develop into interactive terminals. The increase in access to the Internet is allowing a whole new level of interactivity between government offices, schools, colleges, medical centres, businesses and our own homes. Reading a screen can be difficult for anyone under some circumstances such as bright sunlight. However, the problems are more severe for elderly and visually impaired people. The choice of typeface can make all the difference to screen legibility.
Visual impairment is much more common than many people think.
It is estimated that the majority of the population have problems reading text on screens. When a typeface is projected onto a screen the character shapes are created on a grid of fine lines or pixels. Because most traditional typefaces were designed for reproduction on paper rather than screens their subtle shapes are distorted when viewed on screen, particularly at small sizes. Some typefaces are fairly legible on screens but many are not. To help improve the legibility of type on screens, the Tiresias Consortium, under the direction of Dr John Gill of the Royal National Institute for the Blind, have designed Tiresias PCfont.