Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#1

Post by aranjedeath » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 1:03 AM UTC

Stop Using Small Font Sizes
hn.explodie.org

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#2

Post by ibudiallo » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 2:20 AM UTC

You are right simply changing the font size and line height makes a big difference. I always wondered why my fonts where not feeling right. I went with so many different fonts but was still not satisfied . My solution was to just go on the websites I like reading on and open inspector . Crazy how increasing the margin on your paragraphs can make a difference.

So yes I completely agree with you. However I think you should include before and after examples on your article to make it complete

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#3

Post by georgemcbay » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 2:23 AM UTC

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 there let alone easily read them. Supplying a user-defined CSS or constantly highlighting paragraphs is much more painful than a zooming in with the scroll wheel or a simple gesture.

So I agree with the point the article is making but I think there are currently bigger fish to fry when it comes to painful design trends on the web.

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#4

Post by mtitus16 » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 2:25 AM UTC

This is literally a rehashing of this: http://jxnblk.tumblr.com/post/41796724549/im-sick-of-your-ti... from 3 weeks ago.

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#5

Post by CharlesW » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 2:26 AM UTC

Only if you stop using fully-justified text first.

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#6

Post by aranjedeath » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 2:27 AM UTC

ibudiallo wrote: post #2

You are right simply changing the font size and line height makes a big difference. I always wondered why my fonts where not feeling right. I went with so many different fonts but was still not satisfied . My solution was to just go on the websites I like reading on and open inspector . Crazy how increasing the margin on your paragraphs can make a difference. So yes I completely agree with you. However I think you sh…

Yeah. The basic thing I evaluate on most "news" sites is I dive in and set their font to 16 or 18px and 1.5em line height. I even leave their fonts in tact, most of the time. It's an instantaneous readability increase.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll prepare a few side-by-sides.

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#7

Post by drivebyacct2 » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 2:27 AM UTC

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+-.

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#8

Post by aranjedeath » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 2:34 AM UTC

mtitus16 wrote: post #4

This is literally a rehashing of this: http://jxnblk.tumblr.com/post/41796724549/im-sick-of-your-ti... from 3 weeks ago.

Thanks for pointing it out, I didn't see that article.

After having read that article, I'll concede the fundamental argument is the same. I don't have a smartphone, however. The only place I will ever read something is on my desktop computer, and that's what I want. Media queries or "mobile-first design" can be used to solve the issue from both sides of that complaint.

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#9

Post by joblessjunkie » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 2:34 AM UTC

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 most websites would do: throw away all of the CSS, and render the page as a plain list of H1's and P's.

Re: Stop Using Small Font Sizes

#10

Post by bradwestness » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 2:35 AM UTC

12pt Times New Roman is the standard for publishing, so that's become the go-to size for a lot of websites. It was plenty big on 800x600 displays, but I agree that it's generally too small for today's resolutions.

However, the solution isn't to pick a new, slightly larger point size and just set everything to that, it's to use media queries to set an appropriate size for whatever medium the content is being displayed in, and to use sizes relative to the user's default rather than specifying exact point sizes.

You can also use absolute sizes (in and cm in CSS) so that the browser will display the font at the given size without regard to the display resolution or DPI.

Edit: Also, I highly recommend Readability, but obviously it'd be preferable if people just did the right thing to begin with.