Typeface Family for Print and Web
Legibility tested in a clinical ophthalmology setting
Zed Round is a variant of Typotheque's Zed type system, a large-scale sans-serif family built around accessibility and inclusivity. Letter proportions were informed by acuity tests conducted at the National Centre of Ophthalmology in Paris, where Zed Text was compared against Helvetica for low-vision patients. The system spans five variable axes—weight, width, skew, rounding, and optical size—and is being extended to support over two dozen scripts through collaborations with native designers worldwide. Braille characters and an accompanying icon set are included to broaden accessibility beyond visual reading.
Set in Zed Round
Insights
- Acuity tests at the National Centre of Ophthalmology in Paris shaped letter proportions; Typotheque reports Zed Text outperformed Helvetica in reading speed for hospital patients.
- The rounding axis is a dedicated fifth dimension added on top of weight, width, skew, and optical size axes.
- Script extensions involve native designers per language community, with work under way for Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and others.
- An 80-page printed specimen documents the ophthalmology experiment alongside essays on small-text sans-serif design and Braille font development.
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