16 points!
How far away from your computer do you sit? If you’re being good to yourself, you’re not slouching, but sitting up straight with the screen about arm’s length away. But if you’re reading a book or a magazine, do you hold it at arm’s length? So, it might be reasonable to argue that computer apps and web sites might be more legible/accessible by using a larger font size than the typical 12 point font found in books and magazines. That’s a large part of the argument that D. Bnonn Tennant—information highwayman—makes over at Smashing Magazine. I’m not going to rehash his arguments, he makes an excellent case. Go read it. Take a look at the font size on this web site. Obviously I agree with him. I also noticed that the larger font makes my site a hell of a lot better looking and more legible on an iPad. Hopefully more people will take this advice and I can stop paying readability (they have a free service as well) to make web sites legible. Because, let’s face it. The average web site, with all it’s visual noise, pop-up ads, tiny fonts and unnecessary pagination, is anything but legible.