Cadman: An Ideal Font for Those with Dyslexia

Cadman is an ideal font for those with dyslexia. Developed by Dyslexia Action, it is a sans serif font family specially designed to improve the legibility of text for dyslexic readers. The font has a number of features that make it more suitable for use by those with dyslexia. Cadman has Bold, Italic and Bold Italic settings, allowing readers to customize the font to their own needs. It also contains a Greek alphabet and Mathematical Operators, Letterlike Symbols, Miscellaneous Symbols and Dingbat, which makes it an ideal font for mathematics. Furthermore, Cadman offers two stylistic alternatives which change the digit zero from dotted to slashed zero or blank zero. This allows dyslexic readers to easily distinguish between 0 and O. Cadman is easy to read and legible, making it an ideal choice in any setting. It is especially useful for those with dyslexia, as it has been designed to improve the legibility of text for dyslexic readers. With its range of features and settings, Cadman is sure to be a helpful and reliable font for anyone with dyslexia.

The Cadman Font
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by Paul J. Miller


The files in the distribution
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In the top level there are four .otf files. These are all you need to be able to use Cadman. Select all four files, right click on them and select 'Install' from the pop up menu to install the fonts on your Windows computer. Mac users will probably have to do something different and Linux users will probably have to copy the files to an appropriate place and edit a configuration file somewhere.

If you want to use this font on a website the 'WOFF' directory contains the .woff files.

If you want to edit this font the source code is in the directory called 'Source Code'. The .fcp files are project files for the 'Font Creator' program, you will need this program to be able to open these files.

If all you want to do is use the font then the four .otf files are all you need, all the rest are just extras.


Status
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Cadman is a free font, free for both Commercial and non Commercial use in the sense of free of restrictions and DRM but also free in the sense of cost.

Under the terms of the license you may use Cadman in any kind of publication, print or electronic, without fees or restrictions. You may modify the font for your own use. You may distribute your modified version in accordance with the terms of the SIL license.

You may use Cadman for any purpose including commercial usage.

Cadman is licensed under the SIL Open Font License: for the full text, go to http://scripts.sil.org/OFL.

You can release any publications you produce using Cadman under any license terms you want. You may use it for your latest book and sell the book either on paper or in electronic form without any restrictions or requirements.

The only thing you may NOT do is sell the font on its own as a stand alone font.


Description
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I don't know if a specific font for dyslexia is a good thing or not, certainly some fonts are more legible than others.

My hypothesis is that the success of fonts which have been specifically designed for people with dyslexia is a placebo effect. The reader expects the special font to be easier to read so they put extra effort into reading the type. Knowing that a typeface has been specifically created to address one�s needs may well provide useful motivation that enhances concentration and engagement. Then, having better understood text for having made an effort to read it, the reader credits the enhanced comprehension to the special font rather than them having put in extra effort to comprehend it.

However having said that some fonts are easier to read and comprehend than other so why not make a font which fulfills all the criteria, it certainly cannot make the situation any worse.

The Cadman font has been designed to be as legible as possible. There is a lot of opinion on the Internet about which fonts are suitable for dyslexic people and much of it is contradictory. This is only to be expected, people are different from one another and what is suitable for one is not suitable for all.

However there are some characteristics which are commonly accepted as making a font more suitable for use by dyslexic people.

Good ascenders and descenders
Wide apertures
b and d distinguished from each other not just mirrored
p and q distinguished from each other not just mirrored
Different forms for capital I, lowercase l and digit 1
Rounded g and rounded a as in handwriting
r & n together (rn) should not look like m
The f character has a descender to make it more unlike a turned t

Cadman fulfills all these criteria. However Cadman is not just for people with dislexia.

Cadman is suitable wherever a clear and legible sans serif font is required. It has Bold, Italic and Bold Italic.

There are many open type features including SMALL CAPITALS, fractions and ordinals. There are two stylistic alternatives which change the digit zero from dotted to slashed zero or blank zero.

Cadman contains a Greek alphabet suitable for mathematics and many Mathematical Operators, Letterlike Symbols, Miscellaneous Symbols and Dingbats.

Enjoy !