Sans Forgetica: The Font to Remember

Sans Forgetica is designed with memory in mind

Have you ever walked into a room to grab something and then stopped short, suddenly unable to recall what you wanted to do? Do you ever feel a word sitting on the tip of your tongue, just out of reach of your memory? Have you ever looked at a blank page on an exam, knowing you studied the answer an hour ago but coming up with nothing? Forgetting is a frustrating experience that we all share, and at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, researchers are trying to do something about it. The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology has recently unveiled their newest creation on their website: a font called Sans Forgetica, “the font to remember”. 

Sans Forgetica's unique physical features change
the way the font is processed and how we remember it

Sans Forgetica is the first font specifically designed to help readers remember their notes. Created using a combination of psychological and design principles, the font is the result of a collaboration between the university’s school of design and behavioral business lab. At the heart of the project is the psychological principle of desirable difficulty. Fonts that are familiar to us get skipped over when we read; we only look at the outline of each letter and our brain automatically fills in the rest. However, fonts that are too different become illegible and foreign. Neither overly simple nor overly complex fonts form the kind of memory trace that is ideal for improved recall. Desirable difficulty is the happy medium in which some effort—but not too much!—is required, and Sans Forgetica hits this sweet spot. The font is characterized by large gaps in the letters that our minds must use increased effort to fill in when we read. This forces the reader to focus on the entirety of the letter rather than just its outline, leading to better recall. It also uses an 8° back slant, a form of backwards italics that is extremely uncommon in typography. This indicates to our subconscious that the information we are reading is categorically different from other information we usually receive, giving it a particular importance that makes it easier to remember. Sans Forgetica has been extensively tested in psychological experiments using undergrads to measure before and after differences in information retention. In the early stages of the process, several different fonts were being tested, each of which broke different design rules to different degrees. Researchers used the results of these experiments to fine tune the design elements until they created Sans Forgetica, which consistently had the best results for memory recall. The final font is simple and familiar enough that it’s easy to read, but the unique design ensures it’s entirely unforgettable.

The Sans Forgetica alphabet

This incredible interdisciplinary invention is the first of its kind, thanks to the efforts of design, psychology, and typography experts working together at RMIT. Sans Forgetica is an excellent example of the “conceptual combination” that Smith and Ward describe as a mechanical process of creativity. Merging together concepts that are “previously completely separate or otherwise discrepant or dissimilar” is a breeding ground for novelty, allowing new innovations to be created from the unexpected similarities found between them. Similarly, combining resources and ideas from the school of design and the behavioral business lab created the unique mix of skills and knowledge that made Sans Forgetica possible. Smith and Ward also discuss divergent thinking as a method of creativity that emphasizes “many varied and imaginative possible problem solutions”. This kind of thinking was essential to Sans Forgetica’s formation in the early stages of brainstorming, when several different fonts were created that challenged different established conventions of design in new and unique ways. From its inception to its execution, Sans Forgetica is truly a product of the creative process, one that is helping students in their studies all across the world.

Need help remembering your notes? Sans Forgetica can be downloaded for free here!

Sources:

http://sansforgetica.rmit/