Text preferences survey results

Message, a web design and development company in the UK, ran an online survey to find out the answer to this question: “What are the preferred column widths, font sizes, typefaces and line-heights for reading text online.”

More than 5000 people responded and Message have now made available the results. In summary:

• Serif fonts: Georgia is likely to be most readable by the majority of a given audience.
• Sans serif fonts: You can flip a coin between Arial and Verdana.
• Font sizes: All fonts tested are in the ‘readable zone’ if they’re around 12 pt to 15 pt.
• Column width: Depending on the font and size used, the ‘readable zone’ for column widths is between 450 px and 675 px.
• Line height: At ‘readable’ sizes (around 12 pt to 15 pt), a line height value of 1.3 is a strong favorite across all fonts.

For the full survey results, see the original articles:

• Part 1: Introduction: http://www.message.uk.com/textprefs-survey-report-part-1
• Part 2: Methodology and typefaces: http://www.message.uk.com/textprefs-survey-report-part-2
• Part 3: Font sizes: http://www.message.uk.com/textprefs-survey-report-part-3
• Part 4: Column width: http://www.message.uk.com/textprefs-survey-report-part-4
• Part 5: Line Height: http://www.message.uk.com/textprefs-survey-report-part-5

(BTW, as I use a standard WordPress theme, I cannot adjust the font, its size or color in this blog…)

[Links last checked May 2010]