How do typographical factors affect reading text and comprehension performance in Arabic?

Area of Science:

• Typography and Readability Research
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Arabic Linguistics

Background:

• English print text readability is influenced by typographical variables like spacing and line length.
• Existing readability research primarily focuses on English, with limited guidelines for Arabic due to orthographic differences.
• Developing specific design guidelines for Arabic print text is crucial for improving reading efficiency and satisfaction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish basic reading performance benchmarks for Arabic print text.
• To provide design recommendations for print display text formats and layouts.
• To enhance reading and comprehension performance for Arabic academic writings, books, and newspapers.

Main Methods:

• Generated nine distinct text layouts by manipulating interline spacing, column setting, and line length.
• Assessed reading and comprehension performance of 210 native Arab students randomly assigned to different layouts.
• Compared performance across various text formats to identify optimal design parameters.

Main Results:

• Multicolumn settings with medium or short line lengths impacted comprehension achievement but not reading speed.
• Single-column layouts with long line lengths resulted in better participant comprehension scores compared to multicolumn settings.
• Interline spacing was found to have no significant effect on reading or comprehension performance.

Conclusions:

• Recommends a single-column layout with a long line length for Arabic print text to optimize reading and comprehension.
• Suggests that interline spacing is not a critical factor for improving Arabic text readability.
• Provides evidence-based design guidelines for Arabic print materials, enhancing user experience and information retention.