The Design of a Visual Handbook of Texts

Objective: To design a visual handbook of texts containing reading material from daily life that can be used for self-testing,to provide the effects of visual experience and presbyopic refraction, and to test if the handbook contents can replicate the demands of daily life. Methods: There were two steps in designing this manual of visual effects based on experience. First, a questionnaire was used to obtain frequently used, readable materials from daily life. Two, the contents of the manual were based on the information obtained in the questionnaires. The contents of the handbook were classified into 4 groups, and newspapers books, electrical networks, instructions, and receipts. The materials of each group were arranged in descending order according to the word size of the title, and then printed in color. Results: Two hundred valid questionnaires were collected from adults (18 years and above), including 96 males and 104 females. This visual handbook of texts covers 39 types of reading material from daily life, including newspapers, magazines, telephone directories, short messages, receipts, introductions, etc. The handbook has a total of 50 pages. Song, Regular, Black, and Official scriptare used for the fonts. The word size, wave length and contrast range from 4 to 26 pt, 450 (blue) to 620 (red) nm, and 25% to 90% contrast, respectively. Conclusions: All the contents in this handbook came from reading material encountered in daily life, and background images were added to each category so it was closer to real-life experiences. Hence, the contents in this handbook can reflect the visual demands of daily life, and can be used to assess if the subjects' visual acuity can satisfy these demands. Key words: visual acuity; reading material; visual handbook; daily life