Accessibility and font size
The WCAG does not provide clear guidance on font size, which I find frustrating!
I personally believe we should consider font size very carefully when thinking about accessibility, even if it's not part of our legal requirement — remember, beyond just this legal obligation, accessibility is our ethical responsibility as human beings.
Accessiblity shouldn't just be about avoiding lawsuits, it should be about really considering our users, treating them with respect and dignity, and making all of our materials easy for them to engage with.
When it comes to font sizes in digital media, I believe in always erring on the side of larger — not just to help people with visual impairments, but to make our work easier to engage with for all users.
My font size recommendations
I think it's important as digital professionals that we promote our own font size guidelines, in the spirit of focusing on accessibility for all users. An agency that calls itself digitally savvy should establish rules like these and adhere to them for all digital projects, in the same way they adhere to WCAG guidelines. We can and should set our own standard, and make sure to live up to it. And this is something we can and should brag to our clients about.
I've put together my own guidance on recommended minimum font size, and it basically boils down to this:
A recommended minimum font size of 17 pixels (at 72 dpi) for all main content, like body copy, ISI (if you're in pharma), navigation, etc. And I firmly believe that bigger is better.
A recommended minimum font size of 14 pixels (at 72 dpi) for smaller text, like footnotes, references, end matter, etc. Bigger is better for these elements, too.
That's it. Nothing smaller, ever. That's my strong recommendation. And when I say minimum recommended size, I mean it. I believe we should go larger than those sizes when possible. For reference, the smallest text on this website, for desktop, is 21 pixels. That's the size of this body copy you're reading now. For mobile all of the main content is 21 pixels as well, and I've shrunk some of the disclaimer-type copy down to 18 pixels — which means that this "smaller" copy on the elements I'm de-emphasizing is still larger than my minimum recommended size for body copy! Bigger is better! Truly.
Of course these guidelines for minimum font size also apply to any text in images like charts and graphs.
There may be cases where we can make an exception to these minimum font size recommendations, but my philosophy is that we should avoid that, always. Sure, text set to 12 pixels is probably readable for most users. Text set to 10 pixels may be readable for most users if the contrast is high enough. However, with these smaller font sizes, you're asking the user to look more closely, to read more carefully, and you may simply lose their interest. (And anything smaller than 9 pixels is likely to become very pixelated on Windows screens, very possibly to the point of becoming illegible.)
Remember, users will not work hard to consume our marketing materials. Making the experience effortless for everyone is key.
Think about older users. Think about users who don't have their glasses handy. Think about users whose eyes are tired at the end of the day, or may have a headache. Of particular importance if you work in pharma like I do: think about users who are experiencing health problems, and are stressed, or worried, or distracted, or experiencing discomfort.
We should make all of our materials as easy to engage with as possible for these people. Don't let them feel excluded or frustrated!
No user has ever said, "This text is too large." They will, however, definitely notice when text is too small (too small to read, or just too small to be pleasant to read), and they'll quickly bounce. It's effortless and costs us nothing to avoid that.
– Manning
Questions/comments? Feel free to contact me at manning@manningkrull.com. I update these articles pretty frequently — best practices evolve over time as the world of digital quickly changes, and I always welcome insights from others.