Learning: Struggling readers improve with individual text format changes.

Text size, shape, and spacing matter!

But we need pervasive tech in order to deliver personalized reading formats.

Learn about the 2003 study here.

In “One Font Doesn’t Fit All: The Influence of Digital Text Personalization on Comprehension in Child and Adolescent Readers,” Sheppard et al. demonstrated the impact on students of all reading levels. Read more here.

Can Strong Readers Benefit from Personalized Text Formats? How Broad is the Impact?

Positive results were achieved for 95% of students, with an average fluency gain of 28%. Interestingly, several students reading above grade level showed above-average gains.

Read more about the 2015 Classroom Study.

Proof of concept Readability Matters + Adobe Reader Prototype

Readability Matters co-founders approached Adobe with the insight that taking a reader-centric view would enhance the reading experience in Adobe Reader. Adobe agreed to create a prototype with additional Readability Features for mobile devices. The prototype allowed users to choose font, size, line spacing, character spacing, and character width. The prototype was used to test students’ reading proficiency with different text formats.

Read more about the Adobe Tech Proof of Concept here.

See our About and Approach pages.

Readability Matters is granted nonprofit 501(c)3 status with a charter to advocate for Better Reading through Personalized Reading Formats

Readability Feature Demo Sandbox V1 Released

Software developers often create a test environment, called a sandbox, with features for the intended users to try before the code is built, tested, and deployed. The Readability Matters sandbox was designed to demonstrate the power of subtle text changes to impact readability.

Read the article. Play in the newer version of the Readability Feature Demo Sandbox.

Better Reading at the Adobe Education Leaders Summit

Adobe Education Leaders are an invited set of impressive educators from around the world: primary and secondary (K12) classroom teachers, higher education faculty, technology specialists, educational consultants, and school leaders. Readability Matters presented the benefits to education of using personalized text formats.

Read the article.

Readability Matters’ Video Released – See our Story!

Research: Adult Readers Gain as much as 10 Pages per Hour

Adobe funds the University of Central Florida Readability Lab to evaluate the impact of font changes on adult readers.

Read the study results and published paper here.

Fast Company World Changing Ideas 2020 | Readability Matters, Finalist

Fast Company announced the winners of its World Changing Ideas Awards, which honor businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that offer innovative solutions to the issues facing humanity. Readability Matters was honored to be selected as a finalist in the Experimental category, which includes ventures that “have the potential to change how we think about an issue.”

Read the news release and the article.

Adobe Releases Liquid Mode with Reading Settings

“Digital literacy has always been a significant priority for Adobe. Through Liquid Mode, we are exploring text personalization initiatives with partners and educational institutions to unlock the secrets of reading and retention for people of all ages and abilities…”

See the article here.

Readability at the Adobe Education Leaders Summit

The Adobe Education Leaders program is an exclusive community of innovative thought leaders in education. Partners from Adobe, Readability Matters, University of Central Florida, and University of Arizona shared better reading insights with the education leaders.

Read the article.

Readability Presentations at Conferences

Readability Research Community Launched; Methods Paper published

The Readability Research Community launched monthly meetings in 2021 and published a paper on an interdisciplinary approach to the research.

“What could be cooler than an interdisciplinary article written by 28 authors – experts in different areas that all touch on reading/readability – from typography and design, neuroscience and vision science, education, and machine learning? I’ll tell you what: it’s that this article is now published, and we hope that it will indeed become a foundational and trend-setting piece in HCI research and beyond.”

Zoya Bylinskii, Ph.D., Adobe

Read about the community here.

Read about the paper here.

SXSW EDU | Personalizing Reading: One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Adobe’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Rick Treitman and the founders of Readability Matters, Kathy Crowley and Marjorie Jordan, shared their joint goals to change reading outcomes. They discussed the latest data on improving readability and cutting-edge solutions that enable readers to customize text format and optimize the reading experience for all.

See the video.

Fast Company World Changing Ideas Awards: Readability Matters and Adobe Recognized

Read the article and the news release.

Readability Presentations at Conferences:

The Readability Consortium launched – Adobe, Readability Matters, University of Central Florida, and Google

The Readability Consortium is a collaborative research initiative comprising industry, research, and nonprofit organizations. The group is committed to building data and open-source tools required for better digital reading solutions.

Read more on the announcement here.

The Readability Consortium + UserTesting Video Released

UserTesting released a customer story and video showcasing The Readability Consortium and the research aimed at enhancing digital readability.

See the full story and video here.

SXSW EDU 2022: Personalized Reading Formats Make Better Readers

ReadWorks, Adobe, the University of Arizona, and Readability Matters presented insights from a new body of research on readability intended to inform the design of better learning applications.

Read the recap.

Readability at Skoll World Forum

Readability Matters hosts Better Readability Session at Skoll World Forum with 23 Readability partners from tech, education, and academic research.

See the talks here.

EdTech Digest Award | Readability Matters Recognized in the Leadership Awards Visionary Category

The EdTech Awards recognize outstanding contributions in transforming education through technology to enrich the lives of learners everywhere. Featuring edtech’s best and brightest, the annual program shines a spotlight on cool tools, inspiring leaders, and innovative trendsetters across the K-12, Higher Education, and Skills and Workforce sectors.

See the article.

The Readability Wiki is Published

The Readability Wiki offers a snapshot of the work being done across the ecosystem of partners working to implement personalized reading. Links to the latest research, white papers, implementations, news, videos, and podcasts are among the information included.

See the article. Visit the Wiki.

TRC Readability Press Launched

The Readability Consortium (TRC) launched The Readability Press, curated by Readability Matters. This cross-disciplinary newsletter covers news across the broad readability community, made up of individuals from research, technology, education, and nonprofit organizations.

See the article. Access issues of The Readability Press.

Readability Presentations at Conferences:

Readability in the Washington Post

The Washington Post dives into the fascinating world of fonts and their impact on our reading experience. “What’s your type? Try these tests to pick the perfect font for you,” lets their readers experience firsthand how different fonts change the way they read and write.

Read the article.

K-8 Study Published: 20% Gain in Reading Speed and Comprehension

Education Sciences, Special Issue “Digital Innovation in Education.” | One Font Doesn’t Fit All: The Influence of Digital Text Personalization
on Comprehension in Child and Adolescent Readers

Read the Article and the Research Highlight.

Time Best Inventions of ’23: Adobe Liquid Mode

Liquid Mode reflows PDF text to fit the screens of mobile devices; reading settings allow size, character, and line spacing adjustments for the individual reader.

See the article here.

Adobe Liquid Mode also won an Edison Award, Innovative Software Solution, 2024. Read more here.

Research Published: Better Readability in Math Operations

Would you solve mathematical problems more efficiently or experience them as less difficult if the problems were presented in your best reading format? This paper from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society annual conference says yes.

Read more here.

ReadabilityRx Voice-AI-based Assessment Tool Development and NYC Pilot

Readability Matters and our development team created an interactive reading assessment tool based on SoapBox Labs’ voice-AI engine. The tool was piloted in New York City schools in preparation for deployment in an academic research study.

Literacy experts at the University of Oregon, ReadWorks, and Readability Matters launch an AI-based Oral Reading Fluency Assessment + Implementation Study

Literacy experts Drs. Joseph Nese and Gerald Tindal of the Behavioral Research and Teaching (BRT) Lab at the University of Oregon will lead the investigation. The reading portion of the study will be conducted using the high-quality reading content platform, ReadWorks.org. The study will evaluate the impact of personalized text formats on oral reading fluency scores and compare changes in oral reading fluency scores over time.

Read the announcement.

UCF Receives $1M Appropriation from the State of Florida to Advance Readability Research

The $1 million state appropriation allows the UCF team to expand its work to explore how personalized text formats affect a student’s reading performance, as measured by changes in reading speed and comprehension.

See the announcement.

Readability Presentations at Conferences:

Open Letter to Senator Bill Cassidy, MD: Better Readability Improves Learning Outcomes

In response to a call for feedback to inform future initiatives to improve child literacy nationwide, Readability Matters wrote to Senator Bill Cassidy, the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

Read the letter.

The Vision Science of Digital Readability, First VSS Community-Building Workshop

The Readability Consortium organized a satellite event at the annual meeting of the Vision Science Society (VSS) to serve as a community-building workshop at the most prestigious vision science conference. The hosts are experts in several fields of vision science.

Read about the meeting.

Monotype, a Global Leader in Type Design and Technology, joins the Readability Consortium

Monotype has had a significant impact on the world of typography, providing fonts, technologies, and services that have shaped the way text is presented and communicated in both print and digital media. Monotype will expand TRC’s efforts to deliver the research necessary for the day-to-day use of readability-enhancing solutions worldwide.

See the announcement.

Readability Explorer Launched by Exquisitive Tutor

Developed by DARPA engineers with a long history of digital tutor development, Exquisitive’s tutoring modules offer individualized, immersive learning. Users can engage with Exquisitive’s Readability Explorer to learn about their best text format for reading.

See the announcement and visit the Readability Explorer.

Forbes | The Time to Build for Personalization is Now

Monotype COO Ben Semmes examines the future of digital personalization, highlighting how technological advancements are transforming our interaction with text. Semmes explains that personalization is now essential for meeting users’ unique needs on digital platforms.

Read the article.

Readability at IEEE Standards Association  | ICICLE Conference

Engineering for Better Reading Performance Improves Educational Outcomes | Kathy Crowley, Readability Matters, Rick Treitman, Adobe, and Dr. Susanne Nobles, ReadWorks, presented the Learning Engineering approach taken by a broad ecosystem of interdisciplinary partners to deliver better student reading performance.

Read the article.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines 3.0 include Customizing Text Formats for Individuals

Read more about the UDL Guidelines 3.0.

Read more about the UDL conference.

Readability Presentations at Conferences:

The Readability Features Sandbox Demo Tool is Expanded with Content for Additional Audiences

In addition to the original Readability Sandbox content for adult readers, Readability Matters added grade-level content for elementary and middle school students, as well as dementia-inclusive content from Mindful Libraries. Visit the Readability Sandboxes.

See the grade-level content announcement.

See the Mindful Libraries Announcement.

ReadabilityRx Opened for Parents to Explore Readability with their Children, March – June

The Voice-AI-based research tool was available for family use.

Read more here.

The Readability Consortium Grows to 18 Interdisciplinary Research Associates

Read more about the impressive group of Associates here.

Typography should not be one-format-fits-all

Scientifically validating the power of personalized text formats and user-adaptive interfaces

Laying the foundation for next-generation reading environments

Serving all readers—early learners to adults, and from general to special populations

Supporting the shift to reader-first digital experiences

See the Readability Matters Research Page for more.

The next frontier of user experience and market growth is about delivering content effectively

Companies that can deliver real-time, personalized reading experiences will unlock new revenue streams, drive measurable gains in user engagement, and build a lasting competitive advantage.

The current one-format-fits-all approach to content delivery results in poor readability for a significant number of end users. This model creates business costs measured in terms of customer churn, reduced engagement, and higher support costs.

Read more here.

Readability Presentations at Conferences