fonts/knowledge/glossary/terms/legibility_readability/content.md

Although both terms are related, legibility is the measure of how distinguishable individual [characters](/glossary/character) and words are to the eye of the reader; readability is the measure of how easy it is to read the [text](/glossary/text_copy) overall. Both are measures of clarity.

<figure>

![A heading and a paragraph, each set in different typefaces, and rendered once at the top and again at the bottom. In the top examples, the heading text is arguably hard to read due to the legibility of the typeface, and the paragraph text is arguably hard to read because of the very small line height. In the bottom examples, the heading text is easier to read because it’s now set in a more legible typeface, and the paragraph text is easier to read because the line height has been increased.](images/thumbnail.svg)
<figcaption>Left: Legibility issues present (top) and corrected (bottom) in the headings. Right: Readability issues present (top) and corrected (bottom) in the body text.</figcaption>

</figure>

It could be argued that legibility often comes down to the choice of [typeface](/glossary/typeface) and that readability is down to [typography](/glossary/typography)—i.e., the choices made after the typeface has been chosen. But bad typography can affect legibility, too—most obviously if the [type](/glossary/type) is too small or if its [contrast](/glossary/contrast) is too low.