| This study was conducted to develop and test an apparatus capable of determining the legibility of copy. The apparatus called the Light Gradient Box (LGB) works on the principle of varying the amount of light available to the viewer of label copy by two means, the Filtered Light Method and the Incident Light Method.; Nine different messages using two different type faces printed in three different sizes were evaluated using both methods. Forty-five consumers were used as evaluators and eight print industry professionals were used as a control. The results from the experts correlated with those of the consumers using LGB both methods.; High correlation coefficients of 0.976 and 0.984 between the expert and the consumer results for the incident light method and filtered light method respectively, indicate that the LGB, when used by consumers ranks legibility of copy in the same order as experts rank it. Therefore, the LGB is a valid instrument for determining legibility of copy. Consumer visual acuity and age along with type size and type face all significantly influenced legibility. |
