In traditional optometry the Snellen Chart is used to measure distance acuity of one’s vision, one eye at a time. 20:20 has been long set as an indication of perfect vision.
In the process of eyesight development, the chart is not viewed as a test, but as a tool that one can get so familiar with, that looking at it becomes possible while keeping the eyes relaxed.

This practice requires the use of your memory and imagination

• Place the chart on a wall at your eye level. Look at the chart and find a distance from which you can see the 3rd line of letters clearly (point of clarity). If you can only see the top line 1 or 2, then work with those letters instead.

• Once you know what line of letters you will be working with, keep looking at those letters and step away until those letters become slightly blurry (point of blur).

• Stand at the point of clarity, look at one letter on line 3 (or line 1 or 2 if needed), then close your eyes, remember the letter, how clear it is. Remember the contrast between the black letter and the paper on which it is printed.

• When you see the letter clearly in your mind, step away to the point of blur, and with your eyes still closed imagine that you can still see that letter clearly.

• Then open your eyes and look at that letter, with interest, with curiosity. Tell yourself (out loud works great) what letter you are looking at. “I am looking at a letter O”.

Repeat many times. Look at different letters.

Look for a flash of clarity. If your letter clears, even for a micro second, celebrate! Do not try to hold it clear. If it stays blurry, keep practicing, without any expectation of success. It will come, but it may not be in the first session.

Practice Lenses: L and R

Practicing with one eye at a time is much more beneficial, so that acuity develops for each of them. Only bring both eyes together after you have practiced with both mono lenses.

Tips & Watchouts:

• Our eyes can only see one little point at any given time, so it is OK to remember and imagine only a part of the letter

• Get intimately familiar with the chart. Memorize it, if you would like. Memory and seeing are practically one and the same thing and knowing what letters you are looking at at any given time will help you see them clearly in reality, by which a new neural pathway will be formed in your brain for letter interpretation at that distance. Knowing what you are looking at is NOT CHEATING! You still know whether the letters came out clear when you looked at them.

• For those who cannot see up close (i.e. people with presbyopia), you can use this practice by printing the Snellen chart very small (1/4 or 1/8 of the original size), or by using a reading chart. Instead of stepping away, you will move the chart closer to your face to reach the point of blur.

Resources:

• Download your Snellen Chart here.

Reading charts serve the purpose of close-up acuity development, and as the name suggests, they are copies of reading texts organized in an intentional manner suitable for the practice of seeing close objects. As reaching close-up acuity may be tricky especially for those with presbyopia and hyperopia, or those with high myopia, reading charts come in many different variations.

The chart used in this practice leverages the technique of Study of the White Lines.

• Hold the chart in your hand at your eye level and about 12 inches from your face, or at a distance at which you can see the paragraph written in N22 font.

• Start your practice with the last font size that you can read (let’s say it is N16). Read it out loud.

• Then instead of trying to read the next paragraph (most likely with a lot of effort), look at the white lines in that paragraph (N14) and the paragraph after that (N12) instead.

• Study the white lines in those two paragraphs. Do not try to read anything, only look at the white space in between the lines of the black text. Notice the irregularity of each white line as it copies the letters.

• When you get to the end, close your eyes, imagine black letters on white paper, then open your eyes and look at the text in paragraph N14. Can you read it now?

• If not, then do it again. If yes, then repeat the process by always studying the white lines of the next two paragraphs, then going back up.

Do not scan the lines, study them!

Practice Lenses: L and R

Practicing with one eye at a time is much more beneficial, so that acuity develops for each of them. Only bring both eyes together after you have practiced with both mono lenses.

Tips & Watchouts:

• Just scanning the lines will bring you no progress. You must be looking with interest in order for your focus to sharpen.

• After you have learned to read at least N8, consider changing your reading distance. If you are myopic, move the chart one inch further away. If you are presbyopic, bring it closer.

• Use a pointer if it makes it easier to follow the lines.

Resources:

• Download your reading chart here.