Preliminary notes for an article:
What is a ‘good’ font size for reading from a screen? Lots of variables:
- screen size/resolution
- age/eyesight of viewer
- length of paragraph
- measure of paragraph
- reader’s taste
I’ve always assumed that larger font size = more readable, but having read Vivien’s critique of my website, comments on the iA site and through listening to my work colleagues, I’m not so sure.
Garamond - not a body copy font
Can anyone point to any research on this?
Does the font type (serif vs. sans) have any effect? I think that Georgia at 16px looks great and reads great, am willing to admit that helvetica/arial (and sans in general) not so much.
Congruence of taste and readability – emotional aspect?
Possible cop out – respect the user’s setting by specifying font-size: 100%, p {font-size: 1em;}. Except – how many people actually change this setting. Do you know any normal, non-geek people who do this? Are there any stats on this?
Any pointers, ideas etc. welcome.