Hi! On a scale where 100% = 16px, I prefer 85%/13px as a base copy size because it means I can still comfortably drop to 80%/12px as required. I never use any size lower than that, but it's worth saying that for a long time now I've worked on resources whose user experience consists of a lot of reading and information foraging (Wikipedia articles and Google search results each use 85%/13px Arial-sans).
I would venture to say offhand that our choices are probably still often based on how we remember aliased fonts used to look before the the implementations of anti-aliasing that are now ubiquitous. For the same reasons, eminently more readable serif are too often neglected. One fact I remember - its origins I cannot recall - is that Verdana occupies 13% more horizontal space than Arial. I almost never use Verdana if I have the choice: it is neat at small sizes, but I don't use those sizes. Thanx! Mike ------------------- www.mikepadgett.com >I know that there was a discussion on this list a while back, but I'd >love to get a more recent update as to what people feel is the best >'standard' font size for an average audience. We are currently in >a bit of a debate with a client about their 'standard' font size. > > >Their guidelines dictate using 14px Arial / 13px Verdana for content, >which we feel is too large. We feel that a 12px Arial / 11px Verdana >standard is more reasonable to most users (in essence, using the 75% >base font adjustment from the browser standards and then using ems >from that point forward). > >I've done some research of different usability sites and found that >MOST agree that a standard of 75%/0.8em/12px seem to be the best >size, but it is by no means unanimous. But I trust the opinions here >to help me prove my point or theirs. > >P.S. We do use font-sizers on all of our sites, and they run at >settings of 1.0/1.2/1.5em (effectively 12px, 14px, 18px), which I >think takes care of the normal gamut of needs; in my opinion, most >users who need a font size larger than that already know how to get >it and don't need us to intervene. >________________________________________________________________ >Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! >To post to this list ....... [email protected] >Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe >List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines >List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
