Font Size: Go Big or Go Home

Published

March 21, 2013

14 Comments

There are many truly amazing commercial theme developers in the WordPress community these days. Our selection of theme choices have grown exponentially and the overall bar for design work has been significantly raised since I first started designing themes in 2008.

So much has changed! Yet, there is one design practice that continues to befuddle me and that is the size of fonts in new themes. There is no doubt those in the WordPress community have likely heard the cries of Brian Gardner atop Mt. Starbucks imparting designers and developers to start using larger font sizes in their themes and I couldn’t agree more.

Here’s why I think font size in WordPress themes really matters:

Font Size Matters

Small font sizes of 12 pt. and 14 pt. were standard for navigation and body text back in 2008. Smaller fonts provided more room for design or padding. Or maybe our eyes were just better then. Whatever the reason, it’s now time to up our game and our font size.

Here are a few reasons why:

We have a huge population of baby boomers – a generation of website users who are now in their fifties to late sixties. As we age, our eyes deteriorate and reading 12 pt. fonts is difficult, if not impossible.
The vast number of monitor sizes require that we rethink how we design. Even with larger monitors, small text is challenging to read. I’ve bought some great WordPress themes this year but I had to spend hours changing the font size so my clients and I could read the text.
Mobile responsiveness has redefined our web browsing experience. While not every website needs to be or should be responsive, the reality is that most web users are viewing more content on their mobile devices. We have to keep that in mind when developing themes, especially when it comes to website text.

Go Big or Go Home

I want to urge all designers and developers to start with the bigger picture when it comes to creating WordPress themes. Evaluate the entire User Experience and consider how your website visitors might actually use this site.

Do all that you can to practice sound design principles and deliver a great experience for your customers at all times.

And remember, no more small fonts. Go big or go home!

There are 14 comments

March 21, 2013 #

Steven Gliebe

16px all the way. Baby boomers aside, I find a big body font with spacious line height and gigantic headings to be plain comfortable. And since our displays have like 900 trillion pixels now, it works fine.

Who remembers the day of the beige 14″ at 800×600? The cool designers were rockin’ fonts as thin as your fingernail (this was before anybody over 28 used computers).
- March 21, 2013 #
  
  James Dalman
  
  Steven,
  
  I have been finding myself drawn more to spacious line height and larger fonts as well. Most designs I do, I have a 24pt. line spacing with more space around content. I can’t stand everything being cluttered and tight anymore. 🙂
March 21, 2013 #

Steven Slack

Genetics have blessed me with powerful and sharp vision and I still find reading an article with smaller text more difficult. In fact, I am less likely to read the entire article. There is also a marketing aspect of this. If our content is more readable we are more likely to communicate our message without deterring readers even if they have great eyeballs!

I also want to urge designers to respond to this call.
- March 21, 2013 #
  
  James Dalman
  
  Thanks Steven. Couldn’t agree more.
March 21, 2013 #

Alex Patin

I totally agree. This is something I’ve started doing in the last year or so. As screen resolutions have been getting larger (and smaller), larger text is both easier to read and, when done well, can make designs that much more visually pleasing.

It’s not just older people either! I’m only 20 and hate seeing small text on a screen. Like you said – go big or go home!
March 21, 2013 #

Derek Jensen

It’s a lot easier for me to read an article on Daring Fireball than it is for me to read one on A List Apart.
- March 21, 2013 #
  
  Steven Gliebe
  
  Really? Or maybe you’ve got it backwards.
March 21, 2013 #

Jared

I actually prefer the opposite. For example the text sizing of the comments (14px) I find perfect while I think the text size of the content (16px) is too big. I find that 14px is a happy medium.

My clients seem to prefer 14px for the content text size as well. Any time it gets set higher they usually complain it’s too big.
- March 21, 2013 #
  
  James Dalman
  
  Jared, 14px isn’t bad and it does work well for body text provided there is adequate line spacing. I’ve been at sites where it’s a 14px font and 14px line height and that is difficult on the eyes.
  
  16px without proper line height is bad too. Give the words some space. LOL
March 22, 2013 #

David Dashifen Kees

Boomers, hell. I’m a millenial and don’t have the vision to read half the websites I visit. font: normal 16px/1.5 sans-serif all the way, baby!
- March 22, 2013 #
  
  John Saddington
  
  This made me seriously #LOL.
March 22, 2013 #

Thomas Scholz

1em please. Avoid hard coded font sizes.

Also test your layout with a minimum font size set in the browser (20px or more). placeholder text might be cut off or text in a box with a fixed height or width.
March 22, 2013 #

Mike Schinkel

How timely! I need exactly this type of article to reference in a proposal for a client who needs to revamp their site, and many of their readers are boomers. 🙂
April 1, 2013 #

Kaitlin

14pt all the way! Great article 🙂

Font Size Matters

Go Big or Go Home

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