Sans Forgetica
Typeface that helps memory
Researchers at Melbourne's RMIT University Behavioural Business Lab have combined design and psychology principles to create a typeface that helps students to remember what they have read. The font, called Sans Forgetica – a pun on the font names Comic Sans and Helvetica, and the idea of not forgetting – slants eight degrees to the left and has gaps in the structure of each letter. It aids memory by making it harder for people to read any text written in the font. Putting an obstacle to comprehension in the reader's way forces the brain to work harder to decipher the letters. This is the basis of the desirable difficulty principle. Faced with an unfamiliar set of characters, the mind seeks to complete the shapes, which slows it down. By dwelling longer on each word, the brain has more time to engage in deeper cognitive processing, which enhances information retention. "Typical fonts are very familiar so we glance over them and no memory trace is created"