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Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Speed Reading: Pick up the pace!
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Video monitors play an increasingly large part in our lives. Many folks do far more reading from the computer screen than from printed text like books and newspapers.

Are you a speed reader? If you read from a computer monitor the answer is probably "No!"

Numerous vision researchers have shown that people read text much slower on computer screens: 28 percent slower.

Here are some explanations why reading text off a monitor takes more time:

  • distance between the reading material and the reader
  • angle of the reading material
  • character shape
  • resolution
  • characters per line
  • lines per page
  • words per page
  • inter-line spacing
  • actual size of characters
  • inter-character spacing
  • margins
  • contrast between characters and background
  • posture of the reader
  • familiarity with the medium
  • distortion in corners
  • method for text advancement (scrolling vs. turning pages)

So, if you are in a big hurry you might want to print that on-screen text before reading it!

Related Topics: Tips for general good vision, Office Ergonomics

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Posted by: Dr. Lloyd at 10:01 PM

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