David,
be sure to read the rest of my post. After all the maths you end up with a font-size of 12px for the main copy in modern browsers with default font settings. It displays well in IE, and of course the text is resizable.
It works like this: browser default = 16px; therefore body = 16px; and 16px = 1em;
16px * 62.5% = 10px;
thus body = 10px; and 10px = 1em;
therefore 1.2em = 12px;
Most web sites use some form of font reduction. Example: http://www.webstandardsgroup.org sets it's font at 80% for the main copy which results in a font-size equivalent to 12.8px (probably rounded up to 13px by your browser).
If the web in general is hard for you to read then you can always increase your browsers default font size which will increase the font size of every (well authored) page you visit, provided the font-sizes are not specified in pixels. I always increase the size of my mono spaced font by a pixel of two, and specify a minimum font-size of 9px if my browser has the ability (try being a mac user where someones set a font at 8px!).
cheers Terrence Wood.
David Laakso wrote:
Terrence,
Hold that thought. You're setting 62.5% on the body? Good grief man, you've got to be kidding, thats *37.5 % smaller* than my default setting. Try reading that baby in Internet Explorer, even with text zoom, when you're 67 years old like me...
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