THE LETTER6 Considering the medium
HOW AND WHERE LETTERFORMS APPEAR should be a clue as to a designer’s typographic decisions; the medium may dictate what constitutes a more legible type choice. Broadly speaking, is the text on a reflective surface (i.e., paper, billboard, truck panel, environmental signage) or a light-emitting surface (i.e., a computer screen, a video screen, a rear-projection)?
We can break it down further: if the medium is a reflective surface, is it designed to be viewed primarily while being held in the hand, so that the distance between the surface and the eye is a typical reading distance, or is it intended to be viewed from a distance, and if so, what distance? Is the intended reader quite young, quite old, or visually ...
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