Specifications

Crestron Programming Design Kit
56
Doc. 5277J | crestron.com
Line Length
Line length is an important factor because the designer will always try to minimize the size to fit in a button or
small space.
Face, Italic, Bold and Underline
Several experiments discuss the effects of different typefaces on legibility. In one experiment, an italic face was
read 2.7 percent slower than roman lower-case (with an equal “x”- height). Furthermore, 96% of the 224 subjects
who participated in this study judged that italic is less legible than a regular roman font. Bold face was read at
the same reading speed as lower-case text. However, the majority of the subjects (70%) commented about the
unpleasantness of the text as compared to plain roman font. Results of another experiment indicated, “that bold and
medium typefaces do not differ in readability, even under low illumination”; suggesting that there is no apparent
advantage in long chunks of text in bold face. Nevertheless, bold face can be safely and advantageously used for
contrast and emphasis. Although faces can highlight a specific item, overuse of this typographical technique can
be inefficient. Employing too many faces for contrast, emphasis, and attention seeking may be confusing and an
dramatically reduce the legibility, and readability.
Contrast
Crestron recommends the use of dark characters over a light background for normal illumination conditions.
However, when the observer must maintain a dark adaption condition (a darkened home theater environment for
example), Crestron recommends a light character over a dark background.
Color Coding
A character and its background may differ in the amount of light they reflect and color. When viewed from a short
distance, the visual difference between the character and background is better reinforced by using large luminance
differences than by employing large chromatic (color) differences. In other words, the contrast is more important
than color differences in determining visibility of the characters. For example, red and blue have considerable color
contrast; yet can have a very small luminance contrast. Yellow characters over black and dark blue over white
are probably the best choices of color contrast. In several experiments to determine the effect of color contrast on
legibility to test the perception of different colored numerals at a glance, black characters over yellow background
showed the best results.
Using Dark Characteristics Over Color Background
• The reflection percentage of the background should be at least 70 percent.
• The luminance ratio between the character and the background should be about 1:8.
• The type size should be 0.10 inch or greater.
The human peripheral vision is limited in color sensitivity. Some colors are recognized at a greater angle away from
the line-of-sight than others. Colors have a psychological effect on human beings, mainly because we associate
certain colors with past experiences. Some colors convey the feeling of warmth, while others appear cold. The
color red is usually associated with danger, green with normal, and amber with caution; and so are the colors of
indicators. For example, black characters over a yellow background, is associated with caution, diagonal yellow and
black stripes are used in many military cockpits to indicate caution conditions.