What Size Font Is Easiest to Read
Are Y'all Falling for Font Falsehoods? What Matters for Picking the Best Font Size
Pamela Wilson
At that place's a lot of talk on the web lately nearly the all-time font size to employ online.
Sometimes fonts size information is backed upward past studies, and sometimes the writer makes recommendations about the all-time font size based on personal feel — or elementary stance.
I'thou thrilled that we tin talk about fonts and the spider web in the same breath — the early on internet days with express font availability are withal fresh in my mind!
While you're sorting through the font data floating around out there, I'd similar to help steer you clear of some pervasive lies.
Font users beware!
Newfound freedom to selection the best fonts size
It wasn't long ago that we had a minuscule list of unremarkable fonts to choose from. Now, the typographic doors have bust wide open.
Google Fonts are available for free, and Adobe — long a powerhouse font resource on designer'south desktops — acquired Typekit, a leading web font provider and began offering their drove every bit Adobe Fonts.
This means expert times can be had by all: you are free to move about in font land.
But beware …
Picket for typography danger signs
It tin can exist dangerous out there.
First of all, using too many fonts on a page tin can make for a messy, scattered-looking site.
I recommend that you lot start by pinpointing your make personality with my free quiz.
Then, choose 2 chief brand fonts: one for your headlines, and one for your text.
When you pick out your fonts, remember what your mamma taught you nigh picking out your schoolhouse wearing apparel: don't combine stripes and patterns. Expect for pieces that blend well.
Await for font shapes that alloy well, besides. To practise this, you lot need to look carefully at the letter forms.
Wait at lower case letters with distinct forms, similar a, g and eastward. Find fonts that use similar shapes and try those in combination.
But what about the your fonts size?
Well, my friend, here's a designer'southward undercover.
What'due south the best font size? Heed the "x gene"
Here's one font characteristic you may have never heard of. If you tin train your eyes to run into this, you'll be head and shoulders above the average font user when deciding the best font size to use for your website.
It'due south x summit.
Ten height refers to the space between the baseline that letter sit on, and the top of the lower instance ten and mid-section of lower example messages. Here, I'll show y'all:
When you're looking for your ii fonts, try to find a pair that arroyo x height similarly.
In general, the larger the ten peak, the easier a font is to read. The lower case messages of fonts with smaller ten height sometimes "fill up in" visually at smaller sizes.
The annihilation of the "all-time font size" argument
I have a confession to make.
While many people write most fonts size questions with dandy passion, we — the graphic designers of the world — are quietly smirking. That's because we know something you don't — something the passionate font size proponents never talk about.
I'1000 going to share this secret so you can exist in on the "best font size" joke.
Yous know that ten summit gene I explained above?
10-height is what really makes a deviation to readability, not font size.
Here, I'll testify you.
Here are two different fonts. Both of these examples are 14 pt.
The font on the left has a small ten top.
And the font on the right has a big x height.
See how different they await?
Anyone who tells you "utilise sixteen point fonts" or "14 is the new 12" isn't taking ten height into account. And without x superlative, you're only telling half the story.
In the end, approximate who has the ultimate say about fonts size questions?
Your eyes.
When considering a font, set a full paragraph in the font — and at the size — y'all'd like to employ. Then set the same paragraph at a signal size less, and a point size more than.
Then look advisedly. Which is easiest to read?
If you're not happy with any of them, get back to the start and start over with another font.
Size doesn't matter much, but (line) length does
While nosotros're on the font topic, let's dispel one more falsehood. There is no perfect column width, either.
The truth is a bit more circuitous than what'due south more often than not shared.
When you're figuring out your ideal column width, it's more important to think almost your reader than it is to measure pixels. Yous don't want to tire them out: you desire their reading experience to be effortless.
Hither's what I hateful:
When lines of text have also many characters, your reader's eyes have to take a long journey from the beginning to the end of a line, and then detect their fashion dorsum to the outset of the next line. This tin be tiring if you accept a lot of text.
If lines are too short, your reader has to keep hopping from the stop of the line back to the beginning of the next, sometimes three or 4 times simply to read ane sentence. This is tiring, too!
Designers use this dominion of pollex:
The ideal line length is betwixt l-75 characters. Aim for two to iii alphabets worth of text.
What does this mean for you? It all goes back to your font selection. Selection a font, observe the size that works best, and fix it up in paragraph form. And then count.
If your lines are hitting somewhere between l-75 characters total, yous're in good shape.
If they're running short or long, consider either adjusting your column width or your font size.
And so there you have it.
Use these insider font tips to go beyond the simplistic fonts size information you run across. Your web pages will be beautiful and effortless to read. And that'south the whole point, right?
- Brand Fonts, Design, Online Marketing
Pamela Wilson
Pamela Wilson coaches people in mid-career to build assisting online businesses. Employ to piece of work with Pamela in her Offering Accelerator, learn more than virtually her books, and read reviews of the tools used to run this site and business.
I'chiliad Pamela Wilson
In 2010, at the age of 45, I started this site and grew it into a business that offers freedom, flexibility — and consequent revenue.
Become smarter weekly
If y'all're in mid-career, I want to assist yous grow a profitable online business.
Sign up to main (and laugh at) the online business life with me:
Outset here
Set up to earn more than from your expertise?
Join thousands of mid-career online business organization owners who become my online business coaching in their inbox every week. Take the loftier-value offer quiz and permit'southward get started!
19 thoughts on "Are Yous Falling for Font Falsehoods? What Matters for Picking the Best Font Size"
Comments are closed.
The Latest from the Profitable Online Business Weblog
Explore my most-contempo content below.
Source: https://www.pamelawilson.com/best-font-size/
This is a wonderful article with lots of practical and hands applicable advice. I teach workshops on websites and will be adding this information to my presentations. Give thanks yous
I'm glad you enjoyed information technology, Nancy. I have wanted to spell out this information for a long time … it feels skilful to get information technology out into the earth! 🙂
Pamela –
Thank you for explaining "x height". I wondered what that was.
Quick Q – Regarding the number of characters in a line, if you lot have a landing page (I'm working with the Bureau Theme from StudioPress) and the "Total Width" layout allows for a lot of text across (hither'southward exactly what I mean https://demo.studiopress.com/agency/layouts/fwc) would you increase the text font size a indicate or two (which would increase the text size on postal service too) or would you insert images to brake upwardly the "font density"?
Thank you again – Theresa 🙂
Hi Theresa,
There are a couple of things you can practice. If the theme allows you to increment padding, that would be platonic: it would add some nice white infinite between your text and the edge of your content area, and would shorten your line length.
Using a larger font size would also mean less characters per line.
And inserting images would help, likewise … only you probably tin't insert images all down the folio, so that may not exist practical.
Good luck!
Thank yous for your reply Pamela. Karyn (the comment beneath) brings up a great indicate. Depending on your market, information technology might exist a great idea to increase the font size and go far easier to read your content.
Thank you both – Theresa 🙂
Excellent commodity, Pamela. The ten-pinnacle information is a great reminder! Nosotros'll be redesigning all iii of our blogs this year and fonts/readability will exist a huge factor. You're example of "both 14 pts" makes information technology so articulate to run across the difference.
As someone who regularly has her browser window "zoomed" to 125%, I know how hard it is to read some people'southward websites and blogs. The font and line-length info is exactly what I needed to know, not just for my blogs, merely for my email newsletters, too. Thanks!
You're welcome, Karyn! Information technology's prissy when there'southward a handy rule to guide your decisions, only information technology e'er comes down to setting a paragraph then trusting your eyes. The more you practice this, the more than yous'll be able to see for yourself what font size is best.
I tend to use the rule-of-thumb of 11 – 14 words per line rather than l – 75 characters.
I find that a comfortable measure and is much easier to count than private characters 😛
Cheers, James. That should work if yous have sentences with a similar mix of long and short words. Otherwise, it'south a good idea to count characters: you just accept to pick a few lines to get an average number.
Nice picayune snipe on my phrase "Size 14 is the new size 12," but alas, yous're mistaken.
Size 14 is the new size 12 is merely a dominion of thumb, suggesting that the font size people used "before" is besides minor for today's standards, and that people should increase the font size.
Is there exceptions? Of class. X height of fonts is where those exceptions come into play. But for most web-rubber fonts, that rule still applies. fourteen is the new size 12.
And speaking of rules of thumb, yours, almost line length is misguided.
Here'due south the deal:
People, on kickoff impression, adopt shorter line lengths because it appears unassuming. But in reality, they actually read longer line lengths faster.
Then, you shouldn't limit your content to 50-75 characters. Instead, you lot should showtime your content with a short line length (you're giving people what they want) and and so increase the line length later in your content (afterward people have read a few sentences) to speed up reading.
(One note: The reason why you need to increase information technology after they read a few sentences is because direct marketers have long known that if y'all get people to read the first few sentences of your copy, they're more likely to read the entire thing. And then the goal isn't to go people to read everything… the goal is to get people to read just a few sentences).
At present, as an example, look at https://socialtriggers.com. Each article begins with an image with the main goal of shortening the line length to ~ 40-fifty characters. Then, after the image, it widens to the perfect line length for reading which ranges from 75cpl to 100cpl.
For some proof, here's some direct quotes from typographical inquiry studies that shows longer line lengths contributes to faster reading:
#1 From Dyson's "The influence of reading speed and line length on the effectiveness of reading from screen"
"Line length has too been found to affect reading rate on screen (Duchnicky & Kolers, 1983; Dyson & Kipping, 1998). Both studies, although using different display technologies, found that longer line lengths (about 75 and 100 characters per line, respectively), were read faster than very curt lines."
#2 "The Furnishings of Line Length on Reading Online News" past A. Dawn Shaikh, she states this:
"Reading time was converted to words per minute. Results from a one-way within subjects ANOVA showed that in that location was a significant principal outcome of line length on reading speed, F (3, 57) = 3.45, p = .02, η2 = .xv. The 95 cpl (M = 178.82, SD = 41.83) manufactures were read significantly faster than any of the other line lengths (35 cpl G = 167.21, SD = 33.66; 55 cpl M = 167.38, SD = 33.96 ; 75 cpl M = 169.44, SD = 33.48) (Figure i)."
And and then, with my theory that shorter line lengths are more preferable to the user, hither's some other quote:
#1 "Youngman and Scharff (1999) used 12-point type and found that with no margins, when compared with iv and 6 inch line lengths. Over again, an 8-inch line length elicited the fastest overall reading speed. users preferred the 4-inch."
And another…
#2 "Dyson also noted that when testing subjects, people preferred the 55 character line length, again, despite the fact that they read longer line lengths faster."
Then, over again, alteration your rule of thumb for characters per line, it should say something like this: For the first few sentences, the goal CPL should range from 40 to 55. And then later on, yous should increase it to 75 to 100 CPL for faster reading.
Thanks for this well-researched comment, Derek!
The line length data is a fleck confusing: it looks to me like the research tells 2 different stories.
Users read longer lines faster, but prefer shorter ones at beginning glance. Does that hateful longer line lengths turn people away and increase your bounciness charge per unit? It would look like that's the case.
I wrote an article about it here:
https://socialtriggers.com/perfect-content-width/
But here's the summary:
When people visit your site, your goal is to go them reading considering in one case you become them reading, they're more probable to read your entire commodity.
How do you lot go them reading? Well, users prefer shorter line lengths. So you give them just that. And once you get them reading, you lot give them a longer line length… for faster reading.
Additionally, to make this fifty-fifty more interesting, there was some eye-tracking studies where people establish out that if you lot started an commodity with a larger font / pb… like to how psyblog does it… that encourages people to read your article.
(here's the link to psyblog: https://www.spring.org.u.k./2012/04/do-posh-people-cheat-more than-than-the-lower-classes.php)
I doubtable the reason for that is two fold. First, the larger font shortens the line length, and the larger font also grabs attending.
Aye, that "larger font in the intro" technique is something that goes waaaay, back … like, to when books were written by scribes! It's an onetime technique that works keen.
Thanks once again for stopping past and calculation to the word, Derek. I know you're into fonts a lot more than than the average website owner, and I capeesh how you lot put the spotlight on them. 🙂
You lot're crazy to call my theory wrong though :-P.
Pamela, I'm then glad you showed the difference between ii fonts at the same point size. There can be a massive deviation.
Every bit for the number of characters in a line, exercise y'all also need to consider character widths, which are also different depending on the font? Look at Verdana compared to, say, Arial Narrow or even Arial.
Some other confusing element is that websites use pixels or ems for font size. So what you see in your word processor–points–needs to be converted to pixels. For example, 12 points = sixteen pixels.
I ever idea Derek's '14 is the new 12′ referred to pixels, not points. Either way, as you lot demonstrated, Pamela, it all depends on your choice of font.
It's pretty amazing when you see those two fonts next to each other, isn't information technology?
Re: your grapheme width question, narrower fonts will fit more characters per line. Total characters nonetheless works as a guide for non-standard width fonts, but varying widths is ane reason I requite a range.
And the pixel-signal-european monetary system measuring standard is still another reason information technology'due south a expert idea to take a long look at the x elevation of a font and allow your own eyes be the judge of readability, non a number!
That's the premise of this mail, really. I desire to encourage you to go into the habit of setting a total paragraph of the font you lot want to employ, at the size you want to use it. And then look … and trust your eyes. The more often you practice this, the improve you'll become at spotting fonts that work well and are piece of cake to read.
Groovy stuff, Pamela! I particularly appreciate the bit well-nigh the 10 factor. I'm working on a new site, and since I've never been completely happy with my font or size choices before, now I have something to work with.
You besides made me think of this: I already know that super long lines are very tiring on my optics–back and along, back and along over a long stretch. Plus information technology makes me loose the "migrate" or the rhythm of what I'thou reading on the return.
On the other paw, though, I've been using my ereader a lot lately and thinking about whether I prefer that format or regular newspaper books. I like both, but the reader is more tiring for my optics. Why? I remember information technology's the super short lines, now that you mention it. I was thinking it was the more frequent page turning/finger swiping and the inability to but sit back and read for a awhile, but I think it'southward the line length. Or both,
Interesting stuff to recollect about!
The absurd matter near ereaders is y'all have the power to modify the font size. If you've increased the font size on yours, it would be interesting to run across if decreasing it would actually make it easier to read.
It'southward counter intuitive, only your lines would have more characters that mode, and you'd have less back-and-forth. Allow me know if information technology works!
First-class … thanks!