Site Tip · Speed, phones & usability

Readable fonts and text size

Your website might look polished on your desktop at the office. Now picture a customer standing in the sun, squinting at their phone to read your services. If they cannot read it easily, they will not read it at all.

What readable really means

Readable text has three things going for it: a comfortable size, strong contrast, and a simple font. Miss any one of them and reading turns into work.

People visit small business sites in a hurry. They are checking your hours, your prices, or whether you do the job they need. Text that is easy on the eyes lets them find answers quickly.

The light gray trap

Tiny, light gray text on a white background looks sleek on a design mockup. In real life, it is hard to read. Glare from the sun, an older screen, or tired eyes make it worse.

This affects more people than you might think. Anyone past a certain age, anyone in bright light, and anyone reading on a cheap phone can struggle with faint text. Designers often pick it because it looks clean, not because it works.

Simple rules to follow

You do not need to be a designer to fix this. Start with these guidelines:

• Use dark text on a light background, such as near-black on white
• Keep body text around sixteen pixels or larger (a pixel is the tiny dot unit screens use to measure size)
• Choose a simple, familiar font for paragraphs, and save fancy fonts for a big heading at most
• Use no more than two fonts across the whole site
• Leave space between lines so paragraphs do not feel crammed
• Keep paragraphs short, with a clear heading above each section

How to test your own site

Open your website on your phone, hold it at arm's length, and walk to a bright window. Can you still read the main text? If not, the text is likely too small or too faint.

Ask someone older than you to read a page and tell you if anything is a strain. You can also zoom your browser in and out to see how the layout holds up.

Check buttons and links as well. Text on a colored button needs strong contrast against that color, not just against white.

If your site fails the test, Modestius builds and fixes websites for small businesses and can help sort out the text.

Questions owners ask

Is sixteen pixels the right size for everything?

Sixteen pixels is a good minimum for body text. Headings should be larger, and small notes like captions can be a little smaller if they stay easy to read.

Can I still use a fancy font for my logo or headings?

Yes, in small doses. Keep paragraphs in a simple font so the longer text stays easy to read.

Is gray text ever okay?

Dark gray can work if the contrast is strong. Light gray on white is the one to avoid.