Legibility of Chinese-English direction signs: how the spatial presentation of bilingual typography in two different scripts affects sign legibility

Chinese-English bilingual traffic signs (CEBTS) are widely applied in public spaces in China. However, few studies have addressed the design of bilingual signs using two different scripts. The main research question is how can sign legibility be improved by the spatial presentation of bilingual location name(s) comprised of Chinese and English. The dataset was collected to examine the effects of adjusting the spatial presentation of Chinese/English legends on CEBTS legibility. The adjustments include changes in connecting spacing (vertical distance connects Chinese/English into a bilingual legend)(Study A), separating spacing (vertical spacing separates bilingual legends) (Study B), and text alignment (Study C).