Why the larger text?
Several folks have noticed I’m using a larger font size on bokardo now…here’s why.
In short, the text is easier to read now. Not just the body text, but the text in all columns. The inspiration for this change came from an image in the blog post relative readability by Wilson Miner, who explained his reasoning for larger text by holding up a page of 12pt text next to a screen with 16pt text, and they were the same size. That’s a great visual…nothing more need be said.
Make them Care! - Struggling to communicate the value of your product or service? I'm writing a new book that shows you how to make people care about your product or service by clearly communicating the most important bits. For designers and marketers creating product web sites. Find out more.
Links to this Post
Comments
1. Joshua Kaufman 2:51pm, Fri 19th, 2008
Hooray for Children’s Book Text!
2. Jared 8:44pm, Fri 19th, 2008
Now channeling the ghost of Jakob Nielsen.
3. Ari Herzog 2:47am, Sat 20th, 2008
…and I thought you were making fun of my eyesight.
4. Bruno Figueiredo 3:06pm, Sat 20th, 2008
It’s a good idea but it doesn’t work all the time because pixel density is not always the same in every monitor. Granted, right now it may account for 95% of the flat screen monitor market, but still…
5. David Thomas Garcia 10:22pm, Mon 22nd, 2008
I like the bigger text look. At 16px, the font family should be something with serifs though. Those little serifs take up a good deal of room and make the text appear legibly dense despite the size. Sans serif the font is too big and rounded at 16px, they will look much better at 14px and appear to have a similar density to typical 16px serif fonts.
6. Sarven Capadisli 3:06pm, Wed 24th, 2008
If there is one, I’m in the camp that prefers to leave the font-size up to the UA and user’s preference. This is generally at 16px.
However, as a general rule of thumb, I think ~14px is safe for most widely accessible font families.
7. Scott 7:47pm, Sat 27th, 2008
Rather than using pixels, I use the “em” value to size fonts. I do tend to skew larger, but the “em” is a relative unit that will scale depending on a user’s browser settings.
I have no proof to back this up, but I do think that some users are intimidated to dive into content when a page looks like they may have to scroll more. Larger font will make a page seem longer even if there is the same amount of content.
8. Manuel 7:34am, Tue 6th, 2009
For those who do not know – you can change the size of the text easily by holding “Control” and then turn the mouse wheel…
9. PÃ¥l 4:08am, Mon 12th, 2009
Are you aware of the 100E2R initiative? It translates to 100% Easy to Read and is an attempt to standardize online readability.
10. Jonathan 1:01pm, Mon 12th, 2009
Personally, I find the body text harder to read now than before. This may be due to the fact that it looks bold on my usual browser/screen combinations: I can feel a certain amount of visual noise building up when reading it (brought about by more noticeable pixillation – perhaps a serif font would be better?), which adds to a feeling of fatigue when reading longer articles here.
I think you’ve gone too big.
11. HotWomen 9:38am, Thu 26th, 2009
I found your site on Google and read a few of your other entires. Nice Stuff. I’m looking forward to reading more from you.