#3221 NORM First D: Sugar's fonts too small even for fully-sighted people

[Zarro Boogs per Child]

#3221: Sugar's fonts too small even for fully-sighted people
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  Reporter:  ssb22   |       Owner:  marco                 
      Type:  defect  |      Status:  new                   
  Priority:  normal  |   Milestone:  First Deployment, V1.0
 Component:  sugar   |     Version:                        
Resolution:          |    Keywords:                        
  Verified:  0       |  
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Comment(by ssb22):

 Oops, I guess I should have read the whole thing before posting!

 My original comment about "fully-sighted adults" was prompted by the fact
 that, of the 4 adults whom I showed the XO to (age ranged from 50 to 60),
 3 of them remarked that the fonts are too small "even for adults, let
 alone for children".  They said this on separate occasions (not prompted
 by each other), and I didn't say anything to provoke such a comment,
 although their knowing that I'm legally blind might have got them thinking
 about print size, but even still I thought it was interesting that they
 all had the idea that children in general need bigger print.

 Perhaps I should try to get a larger sample of people, but I might not be
 the right person to do it.

 It's also worth noting that none of those adults actually tried using the
 XO; they were simply watching my use of it and hence had their eyes
 further away from the screen.  (This could indicate a possible difficulty
 in a teachers' helping or supervising a child by watching over the child's
 shoulder.)

 I am in the UK.  Many children's books are printed large here, but I
 cannot find a definitive reference that says why.  If the comments above
 are anything to go by, there is a general perception that children need
 the print to be larger.  If that perception is correct, well if children
 need large print in books then they'll need it on the display no matter
 how good the display is.  But as I was unable to find a study of
 children's font requirements in books, I settled for posting the display
 study instead (but I really should have read the whole thing and checked
 what kind of display they were using!)

 Somebody needs to find out definitively WHY children's books are large.
 I'm not sure how to do that.  (It's no good phoning up publishers - if
 they're just following tradition then the person on the phone might invent
 a reason.)

 There also seems to be a general perception that reading at too close a
 distance (even for a child) will damage eye development.  That needs to be
 checked too before we start relying on the children holding it closer.

 On the other hand, one advantage of NOT making the default font large for
 children is that eye disorders are more likely to be detected earlier.  I
 have seen several cases of eye difficulties not being detected in a child
 for some years because the child manages with large-print children's books
 ("he can't possibly have a serious sight problem because look at all the
 reading he does").  Using smaller print earlier will lead to earlier
 detection of difficulties, which could be a good thing.  However, it needs
 to be combined with a magnification option, because once it's established
 that the child has difficulties, in a developing country it might not be
 possible to get spectacles very quickly, let alone obtaining magnifying
 aids for conditions that can't be corrected by spectacles, and if it's not
 very easy to change the font then any child with any amount of short sight
 might erroneously conclude that learning is "not my thing".

 Re breaking layouts, larger fonts will not break layouts if those layouts
 are designed with larger fonts in mind in the first place, which they will
 be if larger fonts are standard.  So the only issue is page turning.  But
 less material per page might actually be a good thing with younger
 children simply because it's easier to know what to concentrate on.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://dev.laptop.org/ticket/3221#comment:7>
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