How we read text

So. We focus in a small circle. And this new product is supposed to shift our text structure to fit more efficiently into our focus. This in turn makes reading quicker, easier, and less intensive. Ok, I’ll buy that. It certainly helps to explain the success of some of the Far Eastern character structures, such as Japanese/Chinese/Korean etc. They read vertically and in collections of just one or a few characters at a time. Sort of similar. But then again, what about the argument that man developed the evolutionary capability to scan vertical horizons easily to search for predators? It’s been backed up in research that our ability to collate images across the horizontal axis is much more natural than along the vertical; hence the really wide TV’s and computer monitors, rather than thin and tall.

Perhaps it’s simply a distinction between the ‘focus’ and the ‘peripheral’? Where our focus is indeed small and circular, and our peripheral is far more effective along the horizontal plane? And perhaps there is something aligned with the physical construction of our eye sockets/muscles/tendons that provide a preference in horizontal shifts…

hmmmmmm