Even though I don’t yet have an iPad, I’m reading user reviews with great interest. Most folks in the design world were anxious to see how, or if, Apple would improve on the readability issues with the Kindle. It’s looking like my wait to purchase an iPad may be a wise thing, given what some typography-minded users are saying.

I’ve just finished reading an excellent review by Stephen Coles that was posted on April 8th. The 108 responding comments are just as interesting to read as the review itself (see link at left).

Much of Coles’ critique has to do with issues of readability. He contends that the iPad’s user interface has not made the onscreen reading experience what it should be — something better, or at least as good, as reading words on paper. In understanding his review, it’s helpful to understand the difference between legibility and readability.

In the discipline of typography, legibility and readability are subtly different from one another. Legibility is a function of typeface design, the way the letters are shaped, and how easy it is to distinguish one letterform from another. Readability is a function of typography, how the words and phrases are organized, how easily one can read those words and phrases in blocks of text. Typography is most legible when it is transparent to the reader. In other words, when typography is successful, the reader is unaware of it. Nothing gets in the way of the reading — and the comprehending — experience.

Back in the 1930s and 40s, Beatrice Warde, marketing manager for Monotype type foundry, wrote that good type is like “a crystal goblet” which allows content to be more important than the container. She insisted that the best typography allows words to make the statement, not the type creating those words.

When typography is poorly-executed, readability suffers. Good book design implicitly involves good typography. Moving book content to an electronic reading device creates a new kind of typographic challenge. To help resolve these readability issues, type foundries have begun developing typefaces expressly for use in the digital environment—meaning that the reading experience involves type set on a backlit screen. The Kindle has been criticized by hardline typographers for disappointing readability. Looks like the jury is still out on the iPad.