this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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You Should Know

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Note that there still have been no studies on its efficacy. At worst, it is a great font to avoid ambiguity between characters.

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[–] RutabagasnTurnips@lemmy.ca 9 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I see a lot of people discussing this font and mentioning OpenDyslexia.

I couldn't find research on Atkinson Hyperlegible. It says it was recently this year, I also couldn't find any research on effectuveness when I looked through the website. If I missed it I aplogize and would love to learn more if someone wants to take the time to link/copy the applicable info. My hope is since it's a non-profit group focusing on helping those with vision problems it has been well developed tested for effectiveness. Certainly if someone wants to try for themselves please do. Before going all out though say converting large volumes of things or implementing for a classroom I think asking questions would be prudent.

Unfortunately OpenDyslexia does not actually help those with this learn disability! The authors of the below article do a good job of discussing why and the harm misconception/misuse of products like these can create.

Wery JJ, Diliberto JA. The effect of a specialized dyslexia font, OpenDyslexic, on reading rate and accuracy. Ann Dyslexia. 2017 Jul;67(2):114-127. doi: 10.1007/s11881-016-0127-1. Epub 2016 Mar 18. PMID: 26993270; PMCID: PMC5629233. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5629233/

Here is some more info and strategies for those instered in regards to dyslexia. https://childmind.org/article/understanding-dyslexia/

[–] snek_boi@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Thank you so much for taking the time to research and share you findings.

As to Atkinson Hyperlegible, I suppose its merit could be, at most, making it harder to confuse characters such as B8, O0, or 1Iil.

Beyond these benefits (and as you mentioned), there is just not enough information on whether Atkinson Hyperlegible definitely helps or not.

Also, thanks for the link on dyslexia. I suppose that, to an extent, promoting fonts like Open Dyslexia could lead to the unintended consequences described in the article.

[–] letraset@feddit.dk 5 points 12 hours ago

I use this font for any document I type up, if it's to be consumed by anyone else but myself.

[–] Dr_Nik@lemmy.world 31 points 13 hours ago (6 children)

This is nowhere near as good as the Open Dyslexic font. It looks weird, and I'm not dyslexic, but damn it makes me able to read so much faster!

https://opendyslexic.org/

[–] gofsckyourself@lemmy.world 11 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I find it ironic that their website has extremely low contrasting colors making it very hard to read.

(Look at the top left for the worst example)

[–] darkstar@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

Yeah it's almost impossible to read

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

I wonder how it works. Maybe it has to do with the intentional varying of the sizes of holes in letters, and the lopsided lines so one can't be confused as another.

[–] cynar@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

While dyslexia is actually a cluster of related issues, a common one seems to be with dimensionality. Basically, the reader's brain assumes the objects are 3 dimensional. When the eyes make micro adjustments, the letters don't rotate, since they are 2D. The brain misinterprets this as them rotating, or moving. This is perceived as them flickering or moving, in the corner of your eye.

There are several ways to break this effect. I suspect the shape is intended to mess with and slightly overload the depth sense. Strong colours can also disrupt it. E.g. via a coloured filter or glasses.

Just to note, my knowledge/research on this was 20 years ago, so might be outdated now. The coloured filters (actually tinted reading glasses) did help a relative overcome dyslexia however.

[–] snek_boi@lemmy.ml 5 points 9 hours ago

I actually changed my Anki to OpenDyslexic a couple of months ago! I changed it again when Atkinson Hyperlegible Next came out, but I agree that OpenDyslexic makes reading a breeze.

My only grievance with OpenDyslexic is that I don't think I could send reports with this font without pushback. On the other hand, I have sent multiple reports using Atkinson Hyperlegible and nobody has ever said a thing.

[–] Pulptastic@midwest.social 10 points 10 hours ago

This looks like the font used on shroom tshirts

[–] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 19 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

I wish there was an open font that tries to do the same thing, but with an aesthetic that wasn't reminiscent of comic sans.

[–] JustARaccoon@lemmy.world 13 points 9 hours ago

You're looking at it, the one linked In the op lmao

[–] Cosmonaut_Collin@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago

But comic sans is funny

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 points 13 hours ago

It feels like Arial but with serifs.

[–] BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 14 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

It's also aesthetically pleasant which is a big plus.

[–] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 0 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Not for readability it isn't

[–] CarbonBasedNPU@lemm.ee 1 points 4 hours ago

There is a balance to be had. Comic sans is great for readability for as much shit as it gets but it is ugly in most contexts so having something that is balanced to look good and still be more legible is a good thing.

[–] fievel@lemm.ee 8 points 13 hours ago

The original Atkinson Hyperlegible (without Next) is available by default on some Kobo e-readers. I use it for a few months now and I find that indeed it helps reading at night (or without my glasses because it's nice to remove them from time to time).

[–] HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 14 hours ago
[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 18 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

I think this actually has a negative effect for me. It's like every character is now screaming for my attention, and my brain can't read whole words and phrases. I have to process the letters first. Though it's possible this could be more to do with the website's rendering on mobile and default font size.

[–] morrowind@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Do you struggle with monospace fonts too?

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Not at all.

[–] snek_boi@lemmy.ml 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

That's interesting. I'd love to know if you have the same experience on a desktop and with different font sizes.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 8 hours ago

It's fine for me on mobile, and I'm glad that the "I" has horizontal lines. So many scammers adopt fake usernames by using an "I" (capital "i") instead of an "l" (lowercase "L") and vice versa.

[–] GreatBlueHeron@lemmy.ca 9 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

It doesn't work for me either. Just reading the text on the page linked here was uncomfortable. It's not like you describe though - for me it's like there's too much white space and there's this mass of words almost floating around the page and it's hard to keep track of where I'm up to. I am a bad/slow reader and all reading is like that for me - that font just seems to make it worse.

[–] CandleTiger@programming.dev 2 points 6 hours ago

I think this font is meant for people with bad eyesight. The website doesn’t make any claims about trouble reading for other reasons.

I’ve always read very fast with no problems but now I’m old and can’t see small print as easily. This font actually was much more comfortable for me to read without my glasses, which I guess is nice for me but no use at all for you.

How do you feel about comic sans and the open dyslexia font some other comments on this page are talking about with positive and negative comments? Do those make any difference at all to you?

[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

Thanks for sharing!

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 19 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Its beyond free for use, its OFL.

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 12 points 12 hours ago (2 children)
[–] gofsckyourself@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

Ordinarily Frisky Lingo

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 8 points 12 hours ago

Open font license

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