Size Matters
I mentioned font size in my last post, saying that larger fonts on the page were more inviting. I believe it affects accessibility, both perceived and actual. Dense, small copy can be uninviting to the point of being off-putting, but it also presents actual reading difficulty to many people. I think it’s just as important as using dark copy on a light background rather than the other way round.
Perhaps many people disagree with my views on this, because I’m often
surprised at how many otherwise very inviting blogs use a font size smaller than that used for the copy on typical non-blog websites.
The only advantage I can see with using a small font is that long posts – like this one – take up less room. But if it puts people off reading them, does it make sense?
Well, perhaps it depends on your target audience. If you know they’re not phased by small print, then it doesn’t matter, and you might as well cram as much good content into the space as possible. Perhaps they’re used to it, if they’re academics, geeks or boffins!
Or, if your copy is actually primarily designed to be read by Google’s bots, you might consider it best to arrange for them to see loads of keyword-rich content on the page, not restful white space.
But if it’s important to you how easy and pleasant you’re making things for your ordinary, human readers, then I would suggest that dense copy is not the way to go. (And, despite the length of this one, I don’t think that very long posts are a good idea either!)
So although the font size on this blog is bigger than some, I’m still looking at increasing it slightly – if I can find out how to do it!
I looked at probably hundreds of Wordpress themes, and have a personal preference for simplicity. I looked at several excellent themes by Cory Miller (http://corymiller.com), but finding them hard to get hold of, I eventually chose this one, Clockwork Air, by Lukasz Sobek of http://ClockWorkBlogger.com.
I like the look of it, and hopefully it will allow me to do what I want to. I’ve altered the heading slightly, and changed one of the font colours from a softly whispering light grey in order to increase the impact slightly. I hope I haven’t spoiled the theme’s careful subtlety.
In the meantime, I did manage to update Wordpress to the latest version, using the Wordpress updater plug-in. Because of the apparent problems I had with the back-up part last time I tried it, this time I used Filezilla to ftp a copy of the whole thing back down to my PC before I started, just in case. All seemed to go smoothly, and I’m now enjoying the new Wordpress dashboard. There are a number of other advantages in Wordpress 2.7, including a built-in automatic update facility!
Posted in Uncategorized
19. January 2009 at 1:40 pm :
Hi James, I am just getting slowly round all of Alex’s students blogs, a slow but I think worthwhile process. No, I think the blue is fine on your header, I believe that blue is the most popular colour in any application. I am definitely in agreement with you about black on a light background. I was on a blog the other day with white out of black and you could actually feel it pulling at your eyes – not good. Dense paragraphs I also believe are a no no, a few lines then a space, encourages people to read further, plus good content of course.
If you have the time, perhaps you would visit my site and look at my competition video and give me your opinion, it would be much appreciated.
Paull
26. January 2009 at 11:38 am :
Thank you Paull. Good to know I’m not barking up the wrong tree. Of course, I could still be just barking…
I went over to visit your site, and loved the video. You’re a natural!