Content Font Size - How small is too small?

[Adam P.]

I'm working on a project that is going to involve a large number of articles and large amount of content. I would like to work with verdana. My problem is that 12 pixels is too big to me. When verdana is at 12 pixels, it's doesn't always look so hot IMO. So I'd rather go with 11px. But 11px scares me because of readability. But I think that 11 looks better and allows more to fit on a page.

It seems like almost all fonts have a font that's too big and one that's too small - nothing just right! I wish there was 11.5.

Anyways, what font size would you recommend or prefer yourself?

[randem]

I always specify font sizes in em measure... that way people who can't read it can turn it up.

[Skunk]

Absolute font sizes in pixels are a bad idea because IE users can't resize them, and there are a LOT of people out there who surf with the font size turned up a notch (or would if they knew how to). Personally I usually use the following in conjunction with a doctype that puts IE6 in to standards mode:

	font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-size: x-small;
	voice-family: "\"}\"";
	voice-family: inherit;
	font-size: small;

What that does is sets the font size to "small" in Mozilla, Netscape 6, Opera and IE6 (in standards mode). IE5 gets confused by the voice-family stuff and uses "x-small" as the font size. x-small in IE5 looks the same as small in everything else and is the exact size I want. Check my blog to see what text sized using the above code looks like.

[Adam P.]

Basically, I would like to use the same font size of the default style at ALA. I think that's 11px. But if I want to go with what you did, skunk, what would I do?

I think I might just go with em's - there would be a lot less code to deal with, especially if I start having font sizes that range from 10 - 12.

[geiger]

I hate when sites mess with my text size settings!

I don't know about px sizes. I always use pt sizes. 8 or 8.5 pt is great. I usually use that.

9 pt looks completely different. It's ALMOST the equivalent of a web size 2 but a tad smaller which is better. I think verdana at 9pt actually looks a little, untidy, but what can you do. For readability's sake, right?

So my suggestion:
For articles, use 8.5 or 9 pt.

[notepad_coder]

I usually use 10pt for all the text on my sites. Anything under 10pt is too small for me.

[Dan_K]

Size 10 for sure!

[moonman]

8pt with Verdana, 10pt with Times (agh!!)

[blufive]

The important thing, for me, is:

DON'T PREVENT USERS RESIZING IT.

My eyesight is excellent, so I have a high-res screen, with fonts set pretty small. I usually get on just fine and dandy with just about anything on any website (barring obscenities like red-on-blue text).

However, my significant other isn't so lucky, and even WITH glasses, often has difficulties. Unfortunately IE has a bug such that if you specify "px" sizes on a font, the user can't resize the text (I think. It may be "pt" sizes. Look it up.)

So if you specify a size too small for my other half, she can't read it. I suspect that many people in the "pixel-perfect" school of web design regard this as a "feature" of IE, but I sure as hell don't.

[pony]

I think 0.9em is ok