A Study on the Legibility of the Text and Colors in the Environmental Sign Design: A Case Study on the Doorplate Design

A total of 160 subjects vary in different ages are tested. The third step is a test for the effective legibility of text and colors on doorplate. There are total 117 subjects tested.

The major findings of the study are: (1) the most appropriate typefaces on doorplate are Bold Kai, Bold Ming, Bold Round, Bold Helvetica; (2) the most effective legibility of the typeface is Bold Helvetica when the Arabic numeral are 5cm height in 20m legible distance and 3cm height in 10.5m legible distance; (3) no significant differences are found between the leading of the text and the effect of the legibility; (4) the most legible colors collocation are white type in blue, red, black and green background, and the poorest legible color are yellow type in purple background and brown type in white background; (5) significant differences are found between among different-age test in the effective legibility of the color collocation.