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Stop Using Small Font Sizes

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Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#11

Post by dgunn »

It's great to see this on HN where there are literally fonts as low as 7pt being used...

Everyone keeps saying that it's fine as long as zoom functions correctly. Well it's also fine to use a font size widely accepted as readable. 7pt? Really? Why? Because zoom works?

I know a lot of people who read HN that use style bot to increase the font size. To act like this isn't an issue seems really weird to me. Ctrl+- is there for people who really need the help seeing. It's actually being used to make up for bad designers.

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#12

Post by aranjedeath »

joblessjunkie wrote: post #9
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #7

We just went through this like a week or two ago. Yeesh. Every browser I use has support for text resizing, default text sizes, or zoom levels. Android WebKit has double-tap and reflow. I don't see why this is a problem demanding such rants. Ironically the first thing I did when the page loaded was tap Ctrl+- Ctrl+-.

The browsers I use most -- Safari on iPhone and iPad -- do not allow this. The only way to increase font size is to zoom the entire page, which often results in lines that are too wide for the screen. And a growing number of websites take deliberate steps to prevent any zooming on the page. I can't understand why any designer thinks this is helpful. At least iOS Safari has "reader" mode now, which does what I wish mo…

Yes unfortunately there is a set of meta tags you can use to set things like default and max zoom level for the page. If they're both at 1.0, you can't zoom at all. I'm not sure who thought that was a good idea to standardize, but if I meet them they will not be receiving a beer.

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#13

Post by martinced »

georgemcbay wrote: post #3

I don't mind small font sizes as long as you don't do anything to break zoom in the browser. What is killing me a lot more lately is the trend towards extremely low contrast sites, like white backgrounds with almost-white text. This is starting to be everywhere recently and it is horrible. I'm sure that design looks great on your Pantone-calibrated monitor, designer, but on mine I can barely even see there are words…

Strong point you're making here. Pantone-calibrated monitors only make sense when you'll be doing actual printing.

A webdesigner using Pantone shades for a website is just being a delusional fool.

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#14

Post by rurounijones »

huh, initially I thought "It is not THAT big of a problem" but after reading his article (easily) then trying to read an article in some of his example offenders sites...I can see his point.

Consider my eyes opened... (and not squinting.)

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#15

Post by andyharl »

I agree that lots of type is set too small. Trying to create global rules for design when clearly something like font size needs to be addressed on a case by case basis depending on what font you are using is not a way to solve the issue.

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#16

Post by crazygringo »

On the other hand, don't use font sizes that are too big (I've noticed that on a number of blogs and startup sites recently).

It might look great on your large iMac screen, but when I read it with an 11" MBA, it's pretty frustrating to only be able to see a handful of lines of text at the same time.

Even this blog which is doing the complaining, I wish I could see more of the text at the same time. Though it's a matter of personal preference, a find its line-height to be a bit too tall. 1.5em is just too much for body text, in my opinion -- it's almost like overcompensation, and you rarely see that in the body text of printed books or magazines. 1.2 or 1.3 can be a lot better.

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#18

Post by jbondeson »

Hilariously, the site is nearly unreadable on my iPhone and two-thirds of the offending sites have larger font sizes on mobile safari.

Quick someone write a "Stop Using Mobile-Hostile Stylesheets" article.

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#19

Post by aranjedeath »

crazygringo wrote: post #16

On the other hand, don't use font sizes that are too big (I've noticed that on a number of blogs and startup sites recently). It might look great on your large iMac screen, but when I read it with an 11" MBA, it's pretty frustrating to only be able to see a handful of lines of text at the same time. Even this blog which is doing the complaining, I wish I could see more of the text at the same time. Though it's a matt…

How wide is your screen (in px)? Because the max width of my layout is around the old 760px standard. You should be able to see everything (even if, as you say, it's a bit too large).

On the other hand, it's a pretty valid critique. To be honest I forgot that there are 11 inch screens (or, screens that are larger than phones but smaller than 17inch desktop monitors). I'm not on any sort of a big screen.

And indeed, my lineheight is 1.618em (golden number in math, heh). I say 1.5 because it's a nice compromise. Perhaps 1.3 or so is better in certain circumstances.

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