Effects of Font Size, Line Spacing, and Font Style on Legibility of Chinese Characters on Consumer-Based Virtual Reality Displays

This study investigated the effects of font size, line spacing, and font style on legibility of Chinese characters on consumer-based virtual reality devices. We employed a three-factor within-subjects design experiment. The three independent variables were: font size, line spacing, and font style. There were three font sizes: 10pt, 12pt, and 14pt, all measured in unit of points. Also, three levels of line spacing were employed in this study: single line, 1.5 lines, and double lines. Two font styles were selected: Hei and Song style. There were 18 (3 × 3 × 2) experimental conditions in total. Thirty-two subjects participated in the experiment and completed the character searching tasks in the pseudo-texts environment under virtual reality scenario. Both objective and subjective measurements were employed to evaluate the legibility of reading Chinese fonts on consumer-based virtual reality displays. Data was collected on search time, accuracy, and subjective preferences of searching. Hopefully the results can provide some recommendations to designing legible and user-friendly Chinese texts on consumer-based virtual reality devices.