What is the best value for font size and line height where readability is concerned?
I myself prefer huge font size and greater line height like the one used in Dive into Python 3.
+2
A:
As with every other "what's the best" question in the world, the answer to this is "there is no 'best'" :-)
For font-size, arguably the 'best' is whatever the user has chosen themselves, either as the default or the minimum. In other words, leave the font size alone for main body copy, and only increase it for headings. You might consider decreasing it by a very small amount for non-critical content. 16px is generally the browser default.
For line-height, values between 1.3 and 1.5 are typically recommended for good readability, although this varies with font face and line length.
Bobby Jack
2009-07-19 16:18:03
Users generally don't choose a default. It's most often left at the default for a given browser, I think. Joel Spolsky himself has said something like that his blog is more popular because of the slightly bigger font size. Does that mean not even programmers override font sizes?
Inshallah
2009-07-19 16:26:15
Well, that's an unknown, as far as I'm aware. I would LOVE some hard evidence as to how many people change those settings. But without the evidence, it seems fair to cater to those that DO change the setting, bearing in mind they're probably the people that need it the very most.
Bobby Jack
2009-07-19 16:28:40
Yes but if they really need it, wouldn't they specify a required minimum, over which you don't have any control? If I had really bad eyesight, then I'm not going to trust websites to provide a good default font-size.
Inshallah
2009-07-19 16:38:52
+1
A:
There is no "best" font size and line height.
It all depends on the type of a site.
If it's mainly a WEB SITE with articles as the main content then bigger fonts and line heights may be better.
If it is an WEB APPLICATION then huge font sizes will prevent you from building a compact and functional interface. So you'll have to resort to typical OS font sizes.
It all depends.
User
2009-07-19 16:18:07
+2
A:
According to what W3C recommended, always use relative font size (em).
use
h1 {
font-size: 2em;
line-height: 2.5em;
}
instead of
h1 { font-size: 24px; line-height: 30px; }
So that user can always override the default font size.
xandy
2009-07-19 16:19:50
Which is, arguably, incorrect behaviour. IE8 still doesn't allow this, anyway, IIRC.
Bobby Jack
2009-07-19 16:26:53
Even it works in most browser, comply to standard and if possible let the 1% edge can still render to content in full potential is always good. And the truth is, IE6 still have quite a large share in the world, and not to consider those small screen machines.
xandy
2009-07-19 16:55:05
This isn't exactly an answer to the question which was about the 'best' "value", not the best "unit".
Bobby Jack
2009-07-20 11:27:08
A:
I find easy to read web pages with body {font-size:1em;line-height:0.94em;}
chchrist
2009-07-19 16:21:40