While I generally recommend taking notes by hand, there are some benefits to modernizing your practice and taking them on the computer, too. One way digital notes can really help you remember what you’re studying is by paying attention to the fonts you use.
I learned this tip last year, and I spent my second semester taking Research Methods notes in uncommon fonts that were still easy enough to read—and it really did seem to help me remember more, so I looked into how deep the research on fonts-for-memory goes. Turns out, there are a few different ways fonts can be useful.
Use Times New Roman for reading comprehension
Table of Contents
Between my own 18 years of schooling and my decade-long side hustle as a writing tutor, I often joked I think in Times New Roman, size 12. According to science, that’s actually a good thing in some cases: One researcher at the University of Nebraska Omaha found in 2019 that easy-to-read fonts like Times New Roman helped study participants get a higher proportion of answers correct on reading comprehension questions. Their research found that in extended texts, Times New Roman is overall better for increased reading comprehension, so if you have to read a big chunk of content, consider copying and pasting it into a Word document and making it TNR.
Use more unique fonts for reading retention
There’s a difference between understanding what you read and remembering it, and that’s where tricker, harder-to-read fonts come in. Some of the best research on font-associated disfluency—or “the metacognitive experience of difficulty associated with a cognitive task”—was published in 2010 and is still cited by researchers looking into font effects today. That research, from researchers at Princeton and Indiana University, involved two studies that ultimately found harder-to-read fonts like Haettenschweiler, Monotype Corsiva, or Comic Sans Italicized helped participants recall more material and perform better on exams in actual classrooms. To make a long, scientifically-jargony story short, your brain has to work a little harder to read those kinds of fonts, so you put in more effort and retain the content a little more.
When I tried this method last year, I opted for Pacifico—a loopy, italicized font I found in Google Docs—and used it to make vocabulary words stand out in my notes. Toggling between fonts as I typed helped me stay engaged, and listening for vocab words to write in Pacifico font helped, too. When I was reviewing the notes ahead of tests, I had to stop and focus on Pacifico vocab words to read them, and I wasn’t able to gloss over them like I normally would with good old Time New Roman. The authors of the 2010 study caution against using a font that is too hard to read, though, as that will render the whole attempt pretty useless. But Pacifico and Monotype Corsiva, an italicized serif font, are just unusual enough to require a little more effort without being too frustrating.
Don’t focus on bigger fonts for memory
While font types have been shown to matter a little bit when it comes to retaining information, there’s also an idea called the “font size effect,” which researchers say is a “metamemory illusion in which larger-font items produce higher judgments of learning (JOLs) but not better memory, relative to smaller-font items.” One publication did find that judgments of learning and memory accuracy were higher after people read larger-font items, but that was always in comparison to when they read smaller-font ones.
Basically, if you have notes where some elements are in a larger font than others, you might remember whatever was typed in the bigger font slightly better—but if you make your entire document a “larger” size, it’s not going to be super helpful, since it’s all relative. Focus less on the font size overall and also keep in mind that no matter what font you’re using, your study techniques, stress level, amount of study time, and environment are also going to play a role in your retention, so changing everything to Monotype Corsiva isn’t going to solve everything. It’s just one small tool in a much bigger kit.