Microsoft however, determined that 12pt equaled 16px at 96 ppi, which is how IE assumed a default base size of 16px.
#Copyq font size mac os
Apple’s Mac OS went for a straight conversion-12pt equaled 12px at 72 ppi. In the 1990s, digital platforms established a conversion from point to pixels, but of course we had low-resolution 14-inch screens to contend with. In the digital space of today however, point is pretty complicated and doesn’t translate reliably. The point unit originates from the 1600s and referred to the height of the metal body on which characters were cast. Through the typewriter era we ascertained that 12pt was about the optimum size for legibility in print despite the fact that books, magazines and newspapers go smaller to reduce paper quantity costs.
Smaller type is extremely useful in certain situations like on captions, cards and other UI elements, but there’s good reason to increase it a few more notches for body text. An 18px font is perfectly legible from the right distance. Now, I’m not saying that small typography is bad. *I’ll be referring to font sizes in px (pixels) instead of pt (point) throughout this article so it’s easily relatable to the framework of the web and digital space. We’re starting to see some sites adopt larger body text at around 20px or even greater on smaller desktop displays, but not enough in my opinion.* The majority of websites are still anywhere in the range of 15–18px. Why would we limit the effectiveness of body text by minimizing its size to a browser-default that’s now over 20 years old, even on large displays? Body text is the key component in communicating the main bulk of a message or story, and it’s probably the most important element on a website, even if people sometimes read just the headlines.
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