Dyslexie font: does it actually help kids with dyslexia?

Last updated 2026-07-10

What is Dyslexie font and who made it?

Dyslexie font is a typeface created by Christian Boer, a Dutch graphic designer who has dyslexia himself. He built the first version in 2008 as part of his graduation project at the Utrecht School of the Arts in the Netherlands, and the font has been commercially available since around 2010 through his company, Studio Stuhl. The core idea is simple. Letters that look alike, like b, d, p, and q, are the ones dyslexic readers flip or swap most often. Boer added heavier baselines to each letter so the bottom weighs more than the top, making orientation clearer at a glance. He also increased the spacing between letters and between words, widened the openings in letters like c and e, and varied the height of similar letters to give each one a more distinct shape.

This is different from just picking a sans-serif font. Times New Roman and Arial do not try to make mirror-image letter pairs look different from each other. Dyslexie font targets that mirror confusion on purpose. Whether that engineering turns into measurable reading gains is where things get complicated. Read the actual studies before you spend money or push your school to adopt it.

The font is not the same as OpenDyslexic, which is a free open-source alternative with similar design goals. They are separate products with separate licensing models and have been tested separately in research.

What does the research actually say about Dyslexie font?

The evidence is small, inconsistent, and almost certainly weaker than the font's promotional materials suggest. That is the honest answer.

The most cited positive study is by Rello and Baeza-Yates, published in 2013. It found that participants with dyslexia read text in Dyslexie font with fewer errors and at a comparable speed to Arial ^[1]. That study had 48 participants, which is a real limitation. A second study by de Leeuw in 2010 (a master's thesis from the University of Twente) found that children read slightly faster and made fewer errors with Dyslexie font, though that work was never peer-reviewed in a major journal.

The other side of the ledger tells a different story. A 2013 PLOS ONE study by Wery and Diliberto tested OpenDyslexic (not Dyslexie font, but a font with the same design philosophy) against standard fonts and found no statistically significant improvement in reading speed or accuracy ^[2]. A 2016 study in Annals of Dyslexia by Marinus and colleagues found no significant benefit for a specially designed font compared to standard Arial, across 84 children with dyslexia ^[3].

So you have a handful of small studies pulling in different directions. The International Dyslexia Association has said the research base is too thin to endorse any specific font as an evidence-based accommodation ^[4]. That is the honest position. If your child says the font is easier to read and less tiring, that subjective comfort matters and costs nothing to respect. But if someone tells you Dyslexie font is a proven treatment for dyslexia, that claim runs past the science.

Here is the bigger picture. Reading difficulty in dyslexia is mostly a phonological processing problem, not a visual letter-recognition problem ^[5]. Most children with dyslexia do not reverse letters more than typical readers do, especially after second grade. The letter-confusion theory is appealing and intuitive, but it does not match what decades of neuroimaging and reading science have found about how dyslexic brains handle language. A font, however well-designed, is targeting a secondary symptom at best.

How does Dyslexie font compare to other fonts for dyslexia?

Several fonts have been marketed or studied for dyslexic readers. Here is how the main options compare on cost, research support, and availability.

Font	Cost	License	Peer-reviewed trials	Design approach
Dyslexie	Free for home personal use; school licenses paid per student per year	Proprietary	2 to 3 small studies, mixed results	Weighted baseline, varied letter height, wide spacing
OpenDyslexic	Free	Open source (SIL OFL)	2 to 3 small studies, mixed results	Heavier bottom strokes, increased spacing
Arial	Free (bundled with Windows/Mac)	Proprietary	Used as control in multiple studies	Standard sans-serif, no dyslexia-specific design
Verdana	Free (bundled)	Proprietary	Some evidence for readability in low vision	Wide letter spacing, clear forms
Comic Sans	Free (bundled)	Proprietary	Almost none	Irregular, handwriting-like strokes

Arial and Verdana come up again and again as nearly as readable as the specialized fonts in controlled studies ^[3]. That doesn't make Dyslexie font useless. It means the gap between a good clean sans-serif and a purpose-built dyslexia font is smaller than the marketing implies.

For a broader overview of dyslexia font options including OpenDyslexic and how schools typically handle font accommodations, that comparison covers the full landscape.

How much does Dyslexie font cost and how do you get it?

For personal home use, Dyslexie font is free. Download it from the official site at dyslexiefont.com and install it on a Mac or Windows computer, an iPad, or an Android device. That free license covers non-commercial personal use only.

For schools, licensing is paid. The Dyslexie font website lists school subscriptions at a per-student annual rate with minimum class sizes, though pricing structures change and you should verify current rates directly before budgeting ^[6]. There are also browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox that apply the font to any webpage, and those extensions are free for personal use.

The Dyslexie font app for iOS and Android lets kids read in the font inside a tablet reading environment. Parents who want to try it before pushing for a school adoption can install it at home for nothing, which is what I'd do first. If your child genuinely finds it easier to read over a few weeks of real use, you have concrete evidence to bring to a 504 or IEP meeting.

One practical note. Installing a font on a school-issued Chromebook or iPad usually needs the IT department. You may have to request it formally rather than just asking the teacher to install it.

Can you request Dyslexie font as a school accommodation under IDEA or Section 504?

Yes, you can request it. Whether you get it depends on your child's eligibility and what the team decides is appropriate.

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.) ^[7], students with a qualifying disability are entitled to a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) with services and accommodations tailored to their individual needs. Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. § 794) ^[8], students with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, including reading, are entitled to accommodations that give them equal access to education. Dyslexia qualifies under both frameworks.

That said, schools do not have to provide a specific font just because a parent asks. The law says the accommodation must be appropriate for the student, not that the school owes you every accommodation you request. What this means in practice: if you can show your child reads faster or more accurately with Dyslexie font, and you've documented that with home trials or a specialist's recommendation, you have a much stronger case than if you simply cite the font's website.

Come to the IEP or 504 meeting with something specific. Bring your child's reading assessment results (from a dyslexia test or a school evaluation), your home observations of the font in use, and a request that is narrow and concrete, such as "We'd like printed classroom materials and digital assignments formatted in Dyslexie font or a comparable sans-serif with wide letter spacing." That second option, "comparable sans-serif," gives the school flexibility and makes agreement more likely.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has affirmed that schools must provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services to students with disabilities ^[9]. A font is a low-cost, easy-to-implement auxiliary aid. Resistance from schools is rarely about cost. It's more often about whether the team believes it will help. Your documentation is what moves that conversation.

Does Dyslexie font help with reading speed, accuracy, or comprehension?

The evidence splits into three separate outcomes, and they don't move together.

Reading accuracy (fewer errors per line) showed modest improvement in the Rello and Baeza-Yates 2013 study ^[1], but not in the Marinus 2016 study ^[3]. Reading speed is essentially unchanged across the better-controlled studies. Comprehension has barely been studied directly at all.

Visual fatigue and reading comfort are where parent and child reports tend to be most positive, and this may be where the font's real value sits. If a child finds ordinary print visually stressful, any change that reduces that stress may let them read longer before tiring, even if their words-per-minute and error rate hold steady on a short timed test. That kind of benefit is hard to measure in a lab but real in daily life.

The International Dyslexia Association's Knowledge and Practice Standards say reading interventions must be grounded in systematic, explicit phonics instruction to produce durable gains ^[4]. A font is not a reading intervention. Pairing Dyslexie font with a structured literacy program like Orton-Gillingham or Wilson Reading is reasonable if your child prefers the font. Using the font instead of proven instruction is not.

One thing worth asking your child's reading specialist: does your child show signs of dyslexia that include significant letter reversals past age 8? If so, the weighted-baseline design may matter more for that specific child. If the main profile is slow decoding and phonological processing difficulty, font choice ranks well below instruction intensity.

Is Dyslexie font good for kids or for adults too?

Most of the studies that exist used adult participants or mixed-age groups, partly because adult subjects are easier to recruit for university research. The de Leeuw thesis used children and found modest benefits, but it was not peer-reviewed ^[6].

For young kids, say ages 5 to 7 who are just learning letter shapes, there's a real argument that steady exposure to standard font forms helps build the letter-to-sound mappings reading requires. An unusual font this early might add a variable you don't need. Most reading teachers I'm aware of would say the same thing: learn to read in standard print first, then add accessibility fonts once the basic code is in place.

For older kids and adults who already know their letters but find sustained reading exhausting, Dyslexie font or a similar wide-spaced sans-serif is worth a try. College students with dyslexia in particular report that setting their own font in digital reading materials cuts reading fatigue in long texts.

If you have a teenager or adult learner, the free home license makes this a zero-cost experiment. Try it for a month on homework and see what they report.

How do you install and use Dyslexie font on different devices?

Installation is fairly straightforward on most platforms.

On a Windows PC, download the .ttf or .otf file from dyslexiefont.com, right-click it, and select "Install." The font then shows up in Word, Google Docs, and any other app that uses system fonts. On a Mac, open Font Book, drag the file in, and it's available system-wide.

On an iPad or iPhone, the Dyslexie app from the App Store lets you read documents in the font inside the app itself. It does not install the font system-wide on iOS because Apple restricts that. On Android, some launchers allow font installation; the easiest route is the Dyslexie browser extension for Chrome on Android.

The Chrome and Firefox browser extensions are the simplest option for web reading. Once installed, the extension rewrites the font on any webpage to Dyslexie font with one click. That works on school assignment platforms like Google Classroom and on news sites, which makes it useful right away without IT involvement.

For Google Docs specifically, your child can set Dyslexie font as the default if it's installed on the device. Go to Format, then Paragraph styles, then Options, and save as default. Every new document then opens in that font.

For school-printed materials, the practical reality is you're asking the teacher to reformat documents. That's a reasonable accommodation request in an IEP or 504 plan, but someone has to actually do it. Some schools run document accessibility tools that can apply a font change at the district level. Ask the special education coordinator whether that infrastructure exists.

What do reading specialists actually think of Dyslexie font?

Opinion among specialists runs from mild skepticism to cautious openness, with almost nobody claiming it's a major intervention.

The International Dyslexia Association's position is that the research is insufficient to recommend any specific font as an evidence-based accommodation, while acknowledging that reducing visual crowding and increasing letter spacing have some support in the broader vision science literature ^[4]. That's a fair read of where things stand.

Orton-Gillingham practitioners and structured literacy specialists tend to focus on what the research consistently supports: systematic phonics, phonemic awareness training, and multisensory decoding work. They're not against a student using an accessible font. They just don't prioritize it.

Some vision therapists are more enthusiastic, particularly those who see patients with visual stress or Meares-Irlen syndrome (a sensitivity to high-contrast text that may overlap with some dyslexia presentations). For those kids, font and contrast changes may make a genuine difference.

My honest read: if a child tells you the font helps and there's no cost to trying it, try it. Don't let anyone use it as a reason to delay or reduce proper reading instruction. The learning disabilities research is clear that early, intensive, systematic phonics instruction is the intervention with the strongest evidence base. Font choice is a comfort accommodation, not a treatment.

ReadFlare's free reading tools include font-friendly worksheet formats if you want to experiment at home before requesting a school accommodation.

Are there alternatives to Dyslexie font that work just as well?

Possibly yes, and some of them cost nothing.

The 2016 Marinus et al. study found Arial performed similarly to a purpose-built dyslexia font for most children in their sample ^[3]. Arial is free, already installed on nearly every device, and needs no IT request. If your goal is simply reducing visual crowding, bumping font size to 14-16pt in a clean sans-serif like Arial, Verdana, or Calibri may achieve most of what Dyslexie font achieves.

Letter spacing is probably the design variable with the broadest support in the literature. A 2012 study in PNAS by Zorzi and colleagues found that increasing inter-letter spacing significantly improved reading performance in children with dyslexia ^[10]. That finding has replicated more reliably than the specific Dyslexie font studies. You can widen letter spacing in Google Docs or Microsoft Word manually, no special font required.

Line spacing matters too. Double-spacing text reduces the visual crowding that makes dense paragraphs hard to parse. Color overlays and cream or light-yellow backgrounds instead of white reduce contrast, and readers with visual stress often report them as helpful.

OpenDyslexic is the most popular free alternative with the same design philosophy as Dyslexie font. It's open source, works across platforms, and has browser extensions. The evidence base for it is similarly modest, but it costs nothing.

For families working on foundational reading skills alongside any font experiment, sight word flashcards and structured phonics practice remain the activities with the strongest research behind them for closing the gap.

What should you bring to your child's IEP or 504 meeting about font accommodations?

Come with documentation, more than a request.

Start with your child's most recent reading assessment. If the school hasn't done one, or you want an independent picture, a screening through a dyslexia test or a learning disability test gives you baseline data to reference. Bring any notes you've made at home about how your child responds to different print formats.

If you've run a home trial with Dyslexie font or OpenDyslexic, write down what you saw. Did they finish more homework? Read longer without stopping? Report less headache or eye strain? Specific observations carry more weight than general claims.

Frame the request around function, not the brand. Ask for "text presented in a sans-serif font with increased letter spacing, minimum 14-point size, on off-white or cream paper" rather than "Dyslexie font." That framing is harder for a school to reject because it matches general accessibility good practice and doesn't require them to buy a specific product.

Section 504 requires schools to give students with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate in education ^[8]. A font modification is low-cost, non-disruptive to other students, and tied directly to reading access. If the school refuses a well-documented request, you have the right to request a due process hearing or file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights ^[9].

The ReadFlare parent advocacy kit has template language for accommodation requests, including font and format modifications, if you want a starting point.

For a broader look at how the IEP process works for struggling readers, understanding phonological dyslexia and signs of dyslexia in your child's records will help you build a stronger case for why reading-specific accommodations are warranted.

Frequently asked questions

Is Dyslexie font free?

Dyslexie font is free for personal home use. You can download it from dyslexiefont.com and install it on Windows, Mac, or use it via free browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. School and commercial licenses are paid, priced per student per year based on published rates. Verify current pricing directly with the company before budgeting, since the structure changes.

Does Dyslexie font actually work for dyslexia?

The evidence is mixed and the studies are small. A 2013 study found modest error reductions with Dyslexie font compared to Arial, but a 2016 peer-reviewed trial found no significant difference. The International Dyslexia Association does not endorse any specific font as evidence-based. The font may reduce visual fatigue for some readers, but it is not a substitute for systematic phonics instruction, which has a much stronger research base.

What is the difference between Dyslexie font and OpenDyslexic?

Both fonts use heavier bottom strokes and wider spacing to reduce letter confusion. OpenDyslexic is open-source and completely free under the SIL Open Font License. Dyslexie font is proprietary with a free personal license and paid school licenses. They have been tested in separate studies with similarly inconclusive results. For home use, OpenDyslexic is a reasonable zero-cost starting point before committing to Dyslexie font.

Can a school refuse to use Dyslexie font for my child?

A school can decline to use a specific branded font, but it cannot refuse all accessible font accommodations for a student with a documented disability under IDEA or Section 504. Frame your request around function, such as wide-spaced sans-serif text in minimum 14-point size, rather than a specific brand. If the school refuses a well-documented accommodation request, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.

What font size should kids with dyslexia use?

There is no single mandated size, but several readability studies and the British Dyslexia Association recommend 12 to 14 point as a minimum for children, with 14 to 16 point preferred for younger or more severely affected readers. Pairing a larger font size with increased line spacing (1.5 or double) and a clean sans-serif font covers most of what specialized dyslexia fonts try to achieve.

How do I install Dyslexie font on a Chromebook?

Chromebooks don't support direct font installation for system-wide use the way Windows or Mac do. The most practical approach is the Dyslexie font Chrome extension, which rewrites webpage fonts in real time. For Google Docs, install the extension and it applies there too. For printed school documents, you'd need to ask the teacher or IT department to format documents in the font on their end before printing or sharing.

Is Dyslexie font good for adults with dyslexia?

Most of the positive self-reported experiences with Dyslexie font come from adult readers, particularly in digital reading contexts. For adults reading long-form content, the combination of weighted baselines, varied letter heights, and wider spacing may reduce reading fatigue. College students with dyslexia often use the browser extension to apply it to course readings online. The free personal license makes it easy to try at no cost.

Does Dyslexie font help with letter reversals like b and d?

That's exactly the problem it was designed for. The heavier baseline and slight shape differences between b, d, p, and q are meant to give each letter a distinct visual weight and orientation. Whether it actually reduces reversals in practice is not well-established in the research. Notably, letter reversals past age 8 are not as common a feature of dyslexia as the font's marketing implies; phonological processing is the more central deficit.

Can Dyslexie font be used on standardized tests or state assessments?

It depends on the test and the state. Most major standardized tests, including state assessments under ESSA, allow font and formatting accommodations for students with documented disabilities under IDEA or Section 504, provided those accommodations are established in the student's IEP or 504 plan before the test. Check your state education agency's accessibility guidelines and confirm the accommodation is listed in your child's plan well before the testing window.

Is there a Dyslexie font app for kids?

Yes. Dyslexie font has an app for iOS and Android that lets users read documents and PDFs in the font within the app environment. It does not install the font system-wide on iOS. For Android, some configurations allow broader font use. The app is most useful for reading imported documents like homework PDFs. The Chrome browser extension is generally more versatile for web-based reading on tablets.

What background color works best with Dyslexie font for dyslexic readers?

White paper with black text creates the highest contrast, which some readers with visual stress find uncomfortable. Cream, light yellow, or light blue backgrounds reduce contrast and are frequently reported as easier on the eyes. This is separate from font choice and costs nothing to try. In Google Docs, you can set a custom page color under File, then Page setup. Some schools will print on tinted paper as an accommodation.

Will using Dyslexie font slow down my child's reading progress?

There's no evidence that using an accessible font harms reading development. The concern would be if font use replaced real instruction time, not if it ran alongside it. If your child is getting systematic phonics instruction and also happens to read homework in Dyslexie font, there is no known downside. The caution is mainly for very young children just learning letter shapes, where consistency of letter forms during initial acquisition may matter.

What is the science behind why Dyslexie font was designed the way it was?

Christian Boer built the font around the observation that dyslexic readers confuse letter pairs that are mirror images of each other: b and d, p and q, n and u. He added heavier ink weight to the bottom of each character to create a gravitational cue for orientation, varied the heights of similar letters, and widened spacing to reduce visual crowding. These are plausible design principles, but the main scientific explanation for dyslexia now centers on phonological processing, not visual letter perception.

Sources

1. ACM ASSETS 2013, Rello & Baeza-Yates, 'Good fonts for dyslexia': Participants with dyslexia read text in Dyslexie font with fewer errors compared to Arial in a 48-participant controlled study
2. PLOS ONE, Wery & Diliberto 2017, 'The effect of a specialized dyslexia font on reading': OpenDyslexic font showed no statistically significant improvement in reading speed or accuracy compared to standard fonts
3. Annals of Dyslexia, Marinus et al. 2016, 'The effect of a dyslexia-designed font on reading': In 84 children with dyslexia, a specially designed font showed no significant reading benefit over standard Arial
4. International Dyslexia Association, Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading: IDA has noted the research base is insufficient to endorse any specific font as an evidence-based accommodation and that durable reading gains require systematic explicit phonics instruction
5. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Report of the National Reading Panel 2000: Reading difficulty in dyslexia is primarily a phonological processing problem; systematic phonics instruction has the strongest evidence base for improving reading outcomes
6. Dyslexie Font official site, Studio Stuhl, pricing and licensing information: Dyslexie font is free for personal home use; school licenses are available at per-student annual pricing; de Leeuw 2010 thesis on children's reading also originated here
7. U.S. Department of Education, IDEA statute text, 20 U.S.C. § 1400: Under IDEA, students with qualifying disabilities are entitled to a Free Appropriate Public Education with individually tailored services and accommodations
8. U.S. Department of Education, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794: Section 504 entitles students with a disability that substantially limits a major life activity, including reading, to accommodations that give equal access to education
9. U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, guidance on students with disabilities: Schools must provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services to students with disabilities; OCR handles complaints when a school denies a documented accommodation
10. PNAS, Zorzi et al. 2012, 'Extra-large letter spacing improves reading in dyslexia': Increasing inter-letter spacing significantly improved reading performance in children with dyslexia, with more reliable replication than specific dyslexia font studies