Seeing typeface personality: Emotional responses to form as tone

Various studies have correlated specific visual characteristics of typefaces with specific overall emotional effects: curvilinear forms and open letter shapes generally feel “friendly” but also “formal” or “informal,” depending on other factors; large contrasts in stroke widths, cap height, and aspect ratio generally feel “interesting,” but also “attractive” or “aggressive,” depending on other factors; low-variety and low-contrast forms generally feel “professional” but also “reliable” or “boring.” Although the current findings on typeface personality are useful, they have not indicated a systematic explanation for why specific physical typeface forms have the specific emotion effects that they do. This paper will report results of an empirical study in which 102 participants indicated their immediate emotional responses to each of 36 distinct typeface designs. Results support correlation between specific typeface features (variety vs. contrast vs. pattern) and specific emotional parameters (amusement vs. agitation vs. focus), explaining findings of previous studies, suggesting various classroom approaches to purpose-driven typeface selection.