What the Helvetica? Sans Forgetica font boasts enhanced memory retention

Boldly tipped as a font to boost the ability to recall information you’ve read, the newly created typeface Sans Forgetica could be a god send for students or even people suffering from memory loss.

Developed at Melbourne’s RMIT University, the font breaks with traditional typeface by leaving out sections of a letter. Breaking with design norms, it looks dysfunctional. But there is a method to the madness of these gapped and slanted characters.

The idea is to get people to dwell on a word just a fraction longer so that the brain engages more in “deeper cognitive processing” or learning.

In order to pinpoint where slight visual obstructions in the lettering should be a team of psychologists and design experts were brought in to build the unusual looking font.

Its creators have set the font a bold task of boosting memory retention.

“Readers often glance over them and no memory trace is created,” said Dr Janneke Blijlevens, of RMIT’s Behavioural Business Lab. “Sans Forgetica lies at a sweet spot where just enough obstruction has been added to create that memory retention.”

The font is now being rolled out for free download online. Perhaps not a font you’d want present for an entire novel, Sans Forgetica is expected to be trialled for people with cognitive dissonance problems.

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