[thelist] Font Sizes

Daniel Medley dm at lgcy.com
Thu Oct 3 14:21:01 CDT 2002


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ben Dyer" <ben_dyer at imaginuity.com>
To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 11:43 AM
Subject: [thelist] Font Sizes


> For years, I've always used 12px (or, back in the day, <font size="2">) as
> a default font size for body text.  But lately I see more and more
> designers wanting to use 10px for body text.  Am I really out of line to
> think that 10px or so is too small for a default font size?  It seems to
be
> very hard to read, even for me (although, admittedly, I do have poor
> eyesight).  What does everyone else use for a default?
>
> (Disclaimer: Of course, in a perfect world, the user would be able to
> control the font size, etc., but there is still always a default font size
> to start with.)
I'm thinking that under most situations it would be best to use a relative
size such as percentages. I see a lot of sites that don't even state a font
size. It may be best to let the user have the ultimate control over font
size. 10px is a bit small and it will vary on different platforms. I'm not
sure, do px sizing come across smaller on a Mac than a Windows system, or is
it the other way around?

Maybe you could set your default size via percentages so that the user can
resize them if necessary.

Daniel Medley





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