[huhtenberg]

I have no immediate way of verifying that what you call a compelling evidence referenced in that blog post is in fact compelling and accurate. I could go through all linked sources, but I don't presently have time for that. On the other hand I read several books on typography and I am partial to the type design. From that exposure I do know that the common consensus between people involved in creating said serifs and sans-serifs is that sans-serifs are generally harder to read. So when I am presented with an evidence to the contrary, you can be damn sure I will doubt it.

Throwing around power words like "science" and "compelling evidence" based on a couple of references plucked from a blog post - sorry, but you are well in a meta area, preaching about general subject matter without any regard to the context. You are not the only one who's aware what science and scientific methods entitle, but then you should also be well aware of a bunch of junk that gets published in a format of scientific research, gets quoted and re-quoted and eventually accumulates notable status even though it hasn't even been peer-reviewed once. This happens all the time and it's a part of "science", so being skeptical is a part of the package. And the more obscure the area of the research, the more skepticism is warranted. You surely know that being that well-versed in all things science.

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Your e-reader doesn't have the resolution required for good quality rendering of serif fonts. Hence the Gill Sans.

[dpark]

My complaint is not that you disagree with the blog or that you don't have the time to dig through all the references (neither do I). My complaint is that you've presented something as fact with no evidence and continue to assert its unquestionable truth in the face of contrary evidence. You've made no actual attempt to defend the claim except to say that others agree with you. That isn't knowledge. I'm not even sure it qualifies as an appeal to authority. It's just dogma.

You're right to be skeptical. You're not right to be dismissive.

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My phone also uses sans-serif fonts almost exclusively and I read a ton of stuff on it. It definitely has a high enough resolution (>300ppi) for serif fonts.

[tadfisher]

I have a suspicion that 90% of the functional effectiveness of any visual aesthetic is learned experience. Witness the outcry over 48fps feature-length films, for example; people complain that it has a "cheap" or "soap-opera" feel, because cheap productions and soap operas are the dominant media filmed in high-speed. This affects the enjoyment that movie-goers take out of their experience, and thus the overall value of the product.

The inferences we make about functional differences in the aesthetics of type would clearly be biased by this phenomenon. It might certainly be possible for controlled observations to reveal that reading speeds are faster for serif type; but this might be due to the fact that the reader is used to it, as most long works are already printed in serif type, in part due to the assumptions of book designers that serif type is faster to read!