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Use at least a 12-point font Usability Guideline

Description

Use at least a 12-point font on all web pages.

Help

For users over age 65, it may be better to use at least fourteen-point fonts. Never use less than nine-point font on a Web site. The following are all smaller than 12 point:

  • <p style="font-size: 11pt;" >
  • <p style="font-size: 15px;" >
  • <p style="font-size: small;" >
  • <font size="2" >
  • <font size="-1" >

Applicable standards

Note: The guidelines.usability.gov website has been down since July 2020, although www.usability.gov is still operating and the PDF version of the guidelines is still available.

Change history

  • 5.27 Oct 2017 Fixed false positive on @media print.
  • 5.21 Mar 2016 Fixed false positive.
  • 4.2 Dec 2010 Fixed false positive.
  • 1.0 Feb 2007 Added.

This page describes a web site issue detected in HTML documents by SortSite Desktop and OnDemand Suite.

Rule ID: UseGov11.8