research-package · RP-ATLAS-TYPO-TRANSFER-001
Typography Cross-Layer Transfer and Adaptive Reading
This research package investigates when improvements to glyphs, fonts, spacing, size, width, and weight transfer to higher-level outcomes such as word recognition, continuous reading, comprehension, navigation, memory, and action. The research rejects a simple upward-transfer model. Typography changes can improve local perceptual capacity without improving reading, can preserve reading speed through increased compensatory effort, or can improve reading for some individuals while harming others. The strongest emerging theory is that transfer occurs when three conditions align: the manipulated typographic property affects the active bottleneck, the benefit survives interactions with layout and language, and the measured outcome is sensitive to the cost being reduced. Atlas should therefore model typography as a personalized adaptive control problem rather than search for one universally optimal typeface.