Vivace

Abstract

The typeface Vivace provides instructions for expressive reading, putting Maarten Renckens’ PhD results into practice. The typeface was selected based on its features to improve expressive reading. The typeface is equipped with a total of seven prosodic cues to support the expressive reading. The cues are variations on the typeface visualising speech variations in loudness, duration, pitch and the pause. A louder/softer voice is visualised by bolder/lighter fonts, a faster/slower voice is visualised by condensed/extended fonts and a higher/lower voice is visualised by vertically up/down moved fonts. Additionally, Vivace features a larger space to indicate pauzes. The implementations of the cues in Vivace assures to be a tool to visualise speech expression, enabling 1) discussing speech variations, 2) comprehending speech variations and their position within a sentence, and 3) performing speech variations correctly.