Comments on: Why the larger text?

By: Changes | Programmer’s Paradox

Changes | Programmer’s Paradox — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:45:06 +0000

[...] following Joshua Porter’s lead in making the text bigger.Â The rational is that it makes content easier to [...]

By: HotWomen

HotWomen — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:38:05 +0000

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.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:01:05 +0000

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.

By: PÃ¥l

PÃ¥l — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:08:11 +0000

Are you aware of the 100E2R initiative? It translates to 100% Easy to Read and is an attempt to standardize online readability.

By: Manuel

Manuel — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:34:32 +0000

For those who do not know – you can change the size of the text easily by holding “Control” and then turn the mouse wheel…

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:47:42 +0000

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.

By: Sarven Capadisli

Sarven Capadisli — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:06:39 +0000

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.

By: David Thomas Garcia

David Thomas Garcia — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:22:17 +0000

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.

By: Bruno Figueiredo

Bruno Figueiredo — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 20:06:36 +0000

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…

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 07:47:46 +0000

…and I thought you were making fun of my eyesight.

By: Jared

Jared — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:44:01 +0000

Now channeling the ghost of Jakob Nielsen.

By: Joshua Kaufman

Joshua Kaufman — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:51:47 +0000

Hooray for Children's Book Text!