Why use sans serif fonts for tactile signs?
Tactile reading is slow and laborious under the best of circumstances. Serifs may look nice on a letter, but the extra points on the shape are just extraneous information to a tactile reader. Adding extra parts onto a letter’s shape can also make letters run together, which can make tactile reading all but impossible. Consider this example: Both lines of text are spaced properly for tactile reading. Notice how the bottom line of serif characters had to be spaced widely, particularly between the R and the A. This extra space makes the word hard to read by sight, and the serifs make it hard to read by touch. Compare this to the top line. Without serifs, the letters “sit” next to each other better visually, while keeping their tactile readability. While not perfect, it is still much more readable by either means.
