The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University has developed a font that their scientists claim will help with memory: Sans Forgetica. It works on the principle of “desirable difficulty.” Usually typography focuses on making text easy to read. But this font makes reading just difficult enough so the reader slows down to process more deeply what is being read. At least that’s the theory.
Here is an edition of the Dhammapada that makes use of this unusual font. Try it out and see what you think. Often when a text like the Dhammapada is so familiar to us, it is easy to move too quickly through the verses. Share your experience reading in the comments.
If you have the latest firmware on your Kindle reader, you can now load your own fonts. Just look for the /fonts/ folder and follow the instructions in the readme file. Most other e-ink readers have had this feature for some time. You can download Sans-Forgetica from the RMIT.
Not sold on the font? You can download the regular version of this translation instead.