Monday, January 29, 2018

Testing Font Sizes

As many of you know, I'm revising the blog's format. One item that is being considered if the size of the font. The Blogger program used for this site gives limited options.

Here is the current font size:

I waited for the green again. That scant little flash of green as the sun winks out behind the horizon. That's where the magic was. In the flash. That's what she said. That's what she always said. Not that I believe in magic. I'd like to, but I know better. The world isn't built of that. It's built of churning molten metal, minerals and stone, a thin wisp of atmosphere, and a magnetic field to keep the worst radiation out. Magic was just something people liked to believe in, something they thought they could feel or sense, something that made everything more than just mechanical certainty. Something that made them more than flesh and bone.

From Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill

Here is the same text with the old font size:

I waited for the green again. That scant little flash of green as the sun winks out behind the horizon. That's where the magic was. In the flash. That's what she said. That's what she always said. Not that I believe in magic. I'd like to, but I know better. The world isn't built of that. It's built of churning molten metal, minerals and stone, a thin wisp of atmosphere, and a magnetic field to keep the worst radiation out. Magic was just something people liked to believe in, something they thought they could feel or sense, something that made everything more than just mechanical certainty. Something that made them more than flesh and bone.

From Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill

Here is the same text with a smaller font size:

I waited for the green again. That scant little flash of green as the sun winks out behind the horizon. That's where the magic was. In the flash. That's what she said. That's what she always said. Not that I believe in magic. I'd like to, but I know better. The world isn't built of that. It's built of churning molten metal, minerals and stone, a thin wisp of atmosphere, and a magnetic field to keep the worst radiation out. Magic was just something people liked to believe in, something they thought they could feel or sense, something that made everything more than just mechanical certainty. Something that made them more than flesh and bone.

From Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill


So it boils down to Large, Medium or Small. Is this a Goldilocks choice where the medium wins, a space-conscious one where the small wins, or an easy-on-the-eyes one where the large font wins?

I won't automatically go with the most votes but would like your thoughts. I can see advantages with each.

Incidentally, sometimes Blogger kicks in an even larger font when the large font is being used. I'm not sure what triggers that.

Thanks!

7 comments:

Steve Layman said...

If you use the small I will need to get better glasses. S

Eclecticity said...

Large please. E.

Kurt Harden said...

Large is perfect.

Jim Stroup said...

It's not just that the large is easier to read - it's that it produces a screen with more white space, which in itself makes the view cleaner, less cluttered and, of course, easier to read.

Andrew Munro said...

Hi Michael, I'd go with the "current" font size. Increasingly, people are reading blogs and emails etc on a smartphone, so you don't want to be too small. A little "friction" helps reading retention, but too much quickly becomes too hard and people just go somewhere else :)

Hope that's helpful.

Unknown said...

Large.

Texas Leigh said...

I worked with a man who taught me to "Never let design get in the way of readability." Why make the information you devote time to publish too small to comfortably read? Large, please.