Watanabe R K, Gilbreath K, Sakamoto C C
New England College of Optometry, Boston, MA 02215.
J Am Optom Assoc. 1994 Jan;65(1):32-7.
A Senior Assembly Proposal was presented to the California Assembly calling for a change in over-the-counter (OTC) medication labeling to make the print more readable. It proposes that a panel of optometrists and ophthalmologists be created to define "readable" print. This proposal came about because a large segment of the 60 years and older population is unable to read the printed material on OTC medication labels.
This study investigated the effects of vertical letter height and horizontal letter compression on readability. Three labels with lettering of different size and compression were used.
It was found that letter compression significantly affected readability while letter height was less of a factor. Results of this study suggest that the lettering on OTC medication labels should be at least 1.2mm in vertical height, or 20/40 Reduced Snellen (RS) visual acuity level, and should have no more than 40 characters per inch.
一项高级议会提案提交给了加利福尼亚州议会，呼吁改变非处方（OTC）药物标签，使印刷内容更易阅读。该提案提议成立一个由验光师和眼科医生组成的小组来定义“易读”的印刷字体。提出这项提案是因为60岁及以上的很大一部分人口无法阅读非处方药物标签上的印刷材料。
本研究调查了垂直字母高度和水平字母压缩对可读性的影响。使用了三个带有不同大小和压缩字母的标签。
发现字母压缩显著影响可读性，而字母高度的影响较小。本研究结果表明，非处方药物标签上的字母垂直高度应至少为1.2毫米，或相当于20/40简化斯内伦（RS）视力水平，且每英寸字符数不应超过40个。
