Found a cheap way to test font readability from a moving car

I was stuck in traffic on I-35 in Austin last Tuesday and watched a truck with a bumper sticker that was completely unreadable at 30 feet. The letters were too thin and the contrast was garbage. So I started printing my designs at actual size, taping them to my car door, and having my wife drive past me in the parking lot at Hobby Lobby. Now I test every layout this way before ordering a batch. Anyone else got a weird testing method that actually works?

2 comments

2 Comments

victorcoleman1mo agoMost Upvoted

That's way too much effort for something that probably doesn't matter. Most people glance at a bumper sticker for half a second and don't care if they can read every letter, they just get the gist of it. Spending your time taping paper to your car door in a Hobby Lobby parking lot sounds like overthinking a problem that isn't really a problem. Just pick a bold font with good contrast and move on.

victorcoleman1mo agoMost Upvoted

And you know what, this whole thing reminds me of that time I tried to hang a picture frame in my garage. I spent like an hour measuring and leveling it, getting the nail in perfect. Then I stepped back and realized I hung it on a wall that had a big crack running down the middle. Nobody who came over ever noticed it, but I felt stupid for wasting all that time. So yeah, I get what you're saying - sometimes we overcomplicate small stuff that nobody else even sees.