Choosing the Right Text Size: Finding the Perfect Balance for Readability

There’s nothing inherently wrong with using a 17 pt font size for digital content, but in practice, you’ll see designers and developers more commonly stick to 16 pt or 18 pt (or their pixel/rem equivalents). A single-point difference may not sound huge, but there are a few reasons why 16 pt and 18 pt are more standard:

1. 16 pt is a common baseline.

   • Most browsers and operating systems historically defaulted body text to around 16 px (which is roughly similar to 12 pt on many screens).

   • Because of this, many design systems, theme templates, and style guides assume 16 px/pt as a starting point.

2. 18 pt is a recognized “large” step up for accessibility.

   • For users who find 16 pt on the small side, 18 pt is often recommended to ensure better readability, especially for older adults or those with low vision.

   • Jumping from 16 pt to 18 pt provides a noticeable improvement in clarity without feeling jarringly large.

3. 17 pt can feel “in-between” without a clear benefit.

   • Fonts often are optimized or hinted for certain pixel sizes (though this is less pronounced than in older screens).

   • It might not offer enough of a size boost over 16 pt to significantly improve readability, yet it’s different enough that layout or spacing might need adjustments—so you end up with some design friction that doesn’t always pay off.

4. Consistency matters for user experience.

   • Especially if you have a responsive design or a large content library, slight, atypical font sizes can lead to inconsistency in line breaks, spacing, and alignment.

   • Most designers prefer to stick with a consistent scale that includes “whole steps” like 14 pt, 16 pt, 18 pt, etc.

All that said, nothing says you can’t use 17 pt if it suits your particular design and tests well with your audience. If you do, pay attention to line height (leading), spacing, and device-specific rendering. Ultimately, it’s more important that your content be readable and accessible—and that your spacing/line height are tuned to that font size—than it is to adhere strictly to a specific “magic” number.

If you’re not sure, a good rule of thumb is to stick with 16 pt for the body text and scale up if you notice that readers are zooming in or if user feedback indicates a need for larger text. If in doubt, testing your specific audience with an A/B test (16 pt vs. 17 pt or 18 pt) is the best way to see which is more comfortable to read.