I know you know this. I know I'm not telling you anything new. But let me just start with the basic premise that I think we can all agree with: you write with the hope that people will read what you've written.
You agree, right? So then let me ask you this. If you've spent the time to write your article, and you've spent the time to share that content with others, why haven't you spent any time on your font size?
Your Font Size Matters
I know it's crazy, but here's the reality in my world. If I see a link to your post, like the title, and visit it but it has tiny fonts, here's what I do. I leave. I don't read it. And I definitely don't share it.
I don't share it because I don't want to share bad design with the world. There's not enough time in life for hard to read, remind me of college, bad design.
And your font selection, font size, and line spacing are all a key part of your design.
Stop Using 12 pt Font
Forgot 12 point font. Just stop it. That's old school. These days 16 or 18 is the new 12.
I know, you're going to tell me that your particular design works well with 12. You're wrong. I love you. But you're wrong.
Test me on this. Make your blog easy to read – even just for a month. Then read your comments and see what your reading audience has to say.
Line Spacing Is Key Too!
It's not just about font size – though it's important. But white space is just as important. Your content is like a fine wine – it needs room to breathe.
So pick not only a large font, but great line-spacing too. Here, on chrislema.co, I use 18pt font, with line-spacing that's 27pts.
Wait? How do I do that?
I know some of you may have a web site that doesn't have a nifty little control panel where you can adjust your font size and line spacing. And maybe you don't know a ton about Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Well, here's the line you'd want to add.
Assuming your content is held in a div called “entry-content”, you would want to add this line:
.entry-content p {
font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px;
}
There you go. If you tweak your font size, come back and tell me.