What are dyslexia fonts?

Dyslexia is a reading difficulty that prevents people from properly decoding written content. For people with dyslexia, both uppercase and lowercase characters appear crowded and the normal spacing between them isn’t enough to separate words, let alone symbols. This is why some people with dyslexia use special fonts that are designed with improved accessibility in mind.

Unfortunately, not all dyslexic-friendly fonts improve readability. Many just boast how they provide assistance but are poorly designed and make reading even more confusing for people with reading difficulties. Therefore, in the following few paragraphs, we’ll discuss all you need to know about dyslexic fonts, in hope of busting myths and offering actual help.

Do certain fonts make comprehension easier for dyslexic readers?

Back in the late 1920s, famous neuropsychiatric Samuel Orton found that people with reading difficulties often confused similar letters. The most obvious example would be switching between the letters “b” and “d.” His conclusion was that this was a manifestation of direction confusion, so he named this strephosymbolia (twisted symbol). This syndrome would later be renamed dyslexia.

Like with all newly discovered difficulties, a range of helpful products popped up, and one of such tools were dyslexic-friendly new fonts. The idea behind them was to make reading a possibility even for those who have the most trouble with dyslexia.

These typography-friendly fonts claim to improve reading speed as well as lower mistakes simply due to their specific design. The similar letters appear less alike, there are no italics, and the spacing between characters is wider.

Nevertheless, despite Orton’s belief, dyslexia isn’t just a visual problem. It’s instead a lot more complicated, meaning that simply improving fonts won’t instantly cure someone’s reading difficulty. Various studies suggest different findings, with some claiming that dyslexia-fonts give false hope, while other studies suggest dyslexic fonts can help people read better.

Either way, a different solution to help people with dyslexia read better can be found in assistive technology like text to speech apps.

Text to speech technology

Text to speech apps are assistive tools that transcribe written words into audio for listening. One of the best is Speechify. It offers numerous benefits, including snapping photos of handwriting and turning it into speech.

Speechify is based on optical character recognition, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. It also offers a range of reading voices, reading speeds, as well as a chance to install it on any platform—smartphone, tablet, or computer.

Aside from reading text for you, Speechify improves comprehension with its customizable and natural-sounding voices. Furthermore, it can help increase or decrease your reading speed even if you’re dyslexic, have vision impairment, or have an attention disorder.

With Speechify, people with dyslexia can listen to text that might otherwise be too difficult for them to read, you can even have it highlight the text on the screen as it reads to you out loud to improve reading comprehension.

Popular dyslexia fonts

Although there are many disputes about how effective they can be, dyslexic fonts are available for anyone willing to give them a chance.

Here are some of the best fonts that are popular among dyslexic readers:

• Dyslexie: When Dutch graphic designer Christian Boer had a hard time preparing for his final university exam, he came up with his font. Dyslexie is now an award-winning font that allegedly prevents letters from spinning around in front of your eyes. You can use it for free, but if you want to print in it, it costs around $100.

• Open Dyslexic: A free and open-source project since 2011, Open Dyslexic is a font created by Abelardo Gonzalez. It’s similar to Dyslexia, but it’s free if you want to use it for commercial purposes. The similarities would cause a beef between Gonzalez and Boer, yet the font remains free to use to this day.

• Gill Dyslexic: Somewhat less popular than the previous two, Gill Dyslexic is another creation from Christian Boer. It costs less for commercial use and has reduced symmetry between letters, which makes them less similar to dyslexics.

• Lexia Readable: Another popular choice for dyslexics is Lexia Readable. You can purchase it at the font’s website, and it looks similar to Comic Sans, just without the juvenile swirls. The idea behind it is that you can use it with smaller letters too.

FAQs

What font is used for dyslexia?

Arial and Comic Sans are standard fonts that work best for people with dyslexia, as they are less crowded than most others. However, you can try alternatives such as Century Gothic, Microsoft’s Tahoma, and Verdana. When it comes to font size, we suggest 12-14 points. Still, for some dyslexics, all capital letters will be necessary.

What does text look like to dyslexics?

Most fonts will appear crowded and hard to read. Therefore, it’s best to use good fonts that are specially designed for dyslexic people, such as Read Regular, Sylexiad, Opendyslexic, Lexia Readable, and Gill Dyslexic.

Does the Dyslexie font work?

Unfortunately, for most dyslexics, the Dylexie font format doesn’t work. At least, that’s what research tells us. Studies suggest that special fonts don’t always help people with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, as they still read slower and make mistakes. Nevertheless, these fonts can prove beneficial for some people, so they’re worth a shot.

What is the font size of dyslexia?

Most people with dyslexia will find a Sans Serif font of 12-14 points beneficial for reading. They will also feel better while reading text with larger letter spacing, as it can improve their reading ability by up to 30%. On the other hand, others will require a much larger font, depending on their preference and reading material.

What are the benefits of using the Dyslexie font?

The main idea behind dyslexia-friendly fonts like Dyslexie is to reduce mistakes and improve reading speed for people with this reading difficulty.

What is the cost of the Dyslexie font?

For publishing, the Dyslexie font costs around $10.

What is the font used for dyslexia called?

There are numerous dyslexia-friendly fonts online. Some of the more popular ones are Times New Roman, Verdana, Courier, Helvetica, and Arial.

Why would people use a Dyslexia font?

Due to their inability to process written text like others, dyslexics require special fonts with accustomed size and character spacing to improve reading speed as well as lessen the number of mistakes while at it.

What is the Dyslexie font?

Dyslexie font is a special font designed specifically for people with dyslexia and some other reading difficulties. To use it for publishing—it costs around $10.

Is dyslexia font free?

Some dyslexia-friendly fonts are free, but some are not. You can check the free ones online to find out whether you’ll need to pay for the ones that cost.