The Rhetoric of Typography: Effects on Reading Time, Reading Comprehension, and Perceptions of Ethos

Although the field of technical communication has seen a recent flurry of activity in the area of visual rhetoric, typography has not occupied a significant role in those discussions. Yet, typography is a critical component of visual rhetoric, particularly, of course, for primarily verbal documents. The existing literature on typography looks primarily at issues of legibility and readability, and only begins to address rhetorical issues through investigation of typeface persona and appropriateness. The study presented here extends that discussion by investigating whether typeface persona shapes readers’ interactions with a document, specifically their reading comprehension, reading speed, and perceptions of ethos.