Poll: Ideal Font Size

What’s a good size to use for the body text of your website? A recent Smashing Magazine article makes a case for using fonts sized 16px or larger, and others have proposed this before. This is the default 100% browser font size, though it’s rarely used. But rather than theorize, let’s do a poll and find out what size people like best. I’m focusing on 4 sizes here: 13px to 16px as I think this covers body text well.

Now, you don’t have to rely on your imagination: I’ve added some JavaScript buttons you can use to try out the different sizes on this very post. Try them out until you get a size that feels right and then vote using the poll below. Note: as we’re picking a body font readability is vital, so pick the size that’s easiest for you to read. Also, this isn’t about pixels vs. ems vs. points–the measurement isn’t in question here so lets leave that argument aside for now.

[Edit: voting now closed – poll results below]