May 31, 2022, 12:10pm
Focusing on a screen, whether it’s your work screen or your post-work FUN SCREEN(!), can feel like it’s draining the life force right out of you and making it impossible to focus on anything longer than 280 characters (and to be honest, some of those long Tweets are a stretch, too).
But a new tool, a font called “Bionic Reading,” claims to help readers—particular those with attention issues—focus on an absorb text. The font renders “the most concise parts of words” in bold, which the font’s creators claim will “guide the eye over the text” and help the brain remember “previously learned words more quickly.”
Does it work? Who knows! I felt like I could read the Bionic text slightly more quickly, but as for retention, I honestly have no idea. Here, try it for yourself:
You can convert text to the Bionic font for free, but the font (or… method?) itself is under copyright, so don’t expect it to sweep the internet any time soon (unless, you know, some website decides to just bold the first few letters of words). Still, anything that increases accessibility and gets people reading more deeply seems pretty cool.
[h/t Upworthy]