Font Specificity

Abstract

We explore the concept of ''image specificity'' for fonts and introduce the notion of ''font specificity''. The idea is that a font that elicits consistent descriptions from different people are more ''specific''. We collect specificity-based data for fonts where participants are given each font and asked to describe it with words. We then analyze the data and characterize the qualitative features that make a font ''specific''. Finally, we show that the notion of font specificity can be learned and demonstrate some specificity-guided applications.