Impact of Typographical Elements on Eye Movements and Behavioural Measures While Reading Among Secondary School Students

Reading, in either print or digital media, is a mandatory activity for school students who need to look at written symbols and letters to identify, process and perceive information and finally understand and retain its meaning. Literature suggests that typographic choices significantly impact behavioural measures, including legibility, readability and comprehension to a great extent. The study aims to assess the impact of typographical elements on eye movements and behavioural measures while reading in secondary school students. The study, conducted at ICMR-NIOH Ahmedabad using an SMI RED 50 Hz eye-tracker, employed purposive sampling (n = 106). Although Cochrane’s formula suggested a sample size of 139, data was collected from 106 due to technical issues and absenteeism. With the same difficulty level participants read the text in 12-point black font, with eight typographic combinations: two serifs (Times New Roman, Bookman Old Style), two sans-serifs (Verdana, Helvetica) and two-line spacing options (1.15, 1.5). Results indicate that participants performed better with sans-serif fonts combined with 1.5 line spacing, showing increased saccadic eye movements, decreased fixation durations and lower blink rates. Behavioural measures also improved, with increased reading speed, higher accuracy and fewer reading errors. Optimizing font type and line spacing can reduce cognitive load and enhance text readability. These findings can guide academicians, educators and publishers in choosing better typography for improved content performance, particularly in digital school textbooks.