Do Your Eyes Hurt From Reading?

EYE STRAIN

Every time you design a page of text, what you’re really doing is creating a high-stress workout for everyone who might end up reading it.

Reading is a very stressful task. When people read, their eyes need to make roughly four movements every second – that is 15,000 eye movements for every hour they spend reading. At the same time as the muscles controlling eye movement are working so rapidly, other muscles are busy keeping the lens inside the eye constantly focused at the distance of the book, magazine or computer.

Whew! It is no wonder that fatigue and other eye problems such as nearsightedness became widespread in the twentieth century. In a survey of more than 4000 computer workers, 40.5 per cent reported experiencing eye fatigue symptoms (sola Optical).

If you want people to be able to read the text you design comfortably, whether it is in print or on a screen, it is worth taking the trouble to make the eye workout as low impact as possible.

Continue reading here at eye magazine.