Let's talk 16px fonts...
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Smashing Magazine has a nice a little write up on why you should use 16px fonts. I know a lot of designers despise small type and we had a talk on that before. Fact of the matter is 16px is a nice default size because it doesn't make most people even hesitate to start reading.
Body copy shouldn't make a person pause to adjust before they start reading. If the focus is to get them to read your content make it a size where they can. If it is smaller blocks of text then you can get away with smaller font, but why should body copy be small?
Smaller is definitely cooler and can look funkier, but normal will keep the people coming back. -
I think that the use of small type on the web was one of the reasons people started using services like Readability. Maybe in the 1024x768 era 10px Verdana body text was fine, but with current high res screens I'd vote +1 for 16px.
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One hand, I'm a designer with a large monitor and resolution who doesn't like distractions when reading. What D Bnonn describes matches my Readability settings. It's easy for me to agree with him.
On the other hand, a larger text size impacts the amount of content on the screen. Say what you want about 'the fold' and information overload, but done correctly smaller text can be quite pleasurable to read.
Case in point: CNN's articles - http://goo.gl/pTctY. That's a lot of info in a small amount of space that isn't a pain to read. Body copy is 14px. Despite multiple navigation menus and a huge hero image, I can get the article summary at a glance without scrolling.
Overall I think D Bnonn is correct, but...
- the tone in his article was heavy-handed at times. Tough to get past.
- some of the studies and stats he referenced work against him. To me, it looks like he went out and found a bunch of links that agree with his point of view. We could probably disprove gravity using that method. The stats didn't do it for me, but his logic did.
- As noted in the comments on SM's page, the design of the actual article is questionable. Put a damper on the whole thing for me.
Again, I think he's correct overall, but probably could have put together a more persuasive article. -
I agree for the most part. Small type in these ever-increasing resolutions has become a pain in the butt. I know it looks "cool" and "classy" but it's hard to read as main body text.
More content doesn't automatically make for a better design. In fact, I'll make a sweeping generalization that it makes it worse in most cases simply because it's distracting as hell. People go to your site for a reason... don't hamper them in their decision to read one thing by cramming five other things on their screen at the same time. If they really want to find those other things, they will!
The rise in popularity of things like Readability or Instapaper is half due to hard-to-read text and half due to "too much content" syndrome where everything is crammed in and things become hard to parse on a more macro level.
Anyway, you can't simply call it 16px and be done with it. In some typefaces 16px is a lot smaller than others -- especially with all these fancy web fonts being used now. For instance, 16px Garamond is a lot smaller than 16px Georgia. Just something to watch out for. In general, typefaces with a tall x-height will be more readable at smaller overall sizes -- hence why Verdana is one of the best choices for small text. -
Context is everything.
Text should be the size it works best at in each design, saying 16px should be used for body text is like saying you should always have line height at 140%…
who uses px for fonts anyway? -
There's just way too many conditions out there to say what's best. You just need to follow the general rules of type and you'll be fine.
Looking at that smashing article page the type is ugly on that page. Is it readible? sure.
I just think people need to know how to pick their fonts and make sure the spacing allows you to read it well. It shouldn't be a matter of just setting it to 16px and being done with it. I'm not the best with the rules of type but I try my best to put them in practice.
btw, i use px!
