Images and Anatomy of Latin Typefaces

Typeface is ubiquitous in everyone's daily life, and it plays an important role in document design especially. However, we still possess a less knowledge about the affective expressions of various typefaces, and it is difficult for even the designers to tell which characters would make difference in feelings. This study quantifies the relationships between images and anatomy of typefaces by the process of kansei/affective engineering. A kansei evaluation experiment for Latin typefaces was conducted for 88 designers and the evaluation data was analyzed by factor analysis, cluster analysis, and quantification theory Type I. The results are helpful for typeface selection and make it closer to readers' preferences. Moreover, the affective relationships between images and design characteristics of typefaces were developed as practical guidelines for typeface design.