I don’t think you’re copping out

In as much as I don’t have to make a decision about font size. But, as you say, no–one bothers changing the default font size, so no–one’s making the decision (if that makes sense).

I guess more people do resize text on the fly (doesn’t Safari place the resize buttons on its toolbar by default? But no New tab button? Odd.) It’d be grand if you could measure how many people are resizing text.

Anyway, the current version of this blog has text that’s sized absolutely (body copy 14px). I think all modern browsers excepting IE6 can resize absolute units with no problems, so I’m veering towards using this approach in the future.

I’ve always sized text using font-size: 100%/1em so that it respects the user’s settings

You’re in good company, and I don’t think you’re copping out.

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to sprinkle my blog with so many comments!

Yes, I agree – and having done some digging around on the internet the question now seems flawed because the (non)answer is so self evident.

I’ve always sized text using font-size: 100%/1em so that it respects the user’s settings, but, as I state above, that’s a bit of a cop out.

There’s a lot of web design folk lore out there: measures of 66 characters or 10-15 words, leadings of 150% font size, golden ratios etc. but little “science”.

What I have learned is that the choice is contextual (i.e. relates to many other settings, such as measure and leading) and variable (i.e. dependent on monitor quality, reader age etc.) Then there’s the final aesthetic considerations.

Andrea Gardino, whom Leon was kind enough to steer me towards, does lovely work with Georgia as his main typeface, largely through subtle tweaking of line-height and letter-spacing, and by designing for the typeface.

I do think there is an issue with a shorter measure and larger font sizes: I’ll probably increase the measure in the next site redesign.

Thanks,

Leon

In any case, I don’t think you can go wrong in the 13px-16px range when it comes to body copy. At 12px I definitely want to “zoom” the page.

Firstly, thanks for the links—very helpful.

Secondly—I think designers prefer small text because it looks like nice, even–edged boxes rather than an uneven, unjustified mess.

Some interesting discussions about font szes/typography for the web:

Arial vs Vernada?

What’s the right default font size for a website?

Thanks for the comment – good to know you get something from the articles.

Yes, that’s part of the problem: the subjectivity. I currently have body copy set to 100% 1em, which, in theory, lets the reader decide. Except I doubt most people know how to change their default settings, let alone bother. And when people say they find 16px helvetica/arial hard to read, or that it’s ‘ugly’, then that causes a problem.

I try to keep with the user default for body copy.

Thanks for your excellent articles!