Typeface Emotion Analysis for Communication on Mobile Messengers

Saemi Choi, Toshihiko Yamasaki, Kiyoharu Aizawa

Abstract: Nonverbal signals such as facial expressions and gestures cannot be conveyed by text messages on a mobile messenger. In this study, we investigate the potential use of typefaces for emotional representation by which people can feel nonverbal signals. We constructed a dataset of various typefaces and conducted a large-scale crowd-sourced user study to investigate the relationship between typefaces and emotional signals based on commonly used psychological emotion models. From the user study, we determined that several visual characteristics of typefaces have weak/strong emotional influences on viewers and verified that certain emotions and feelings can be conveyed on text messages.