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Ask HN: Have you noticed the subtle increase in font sizes around web?

by vfistri2 on 1/13/23, 10:12 AM with 11 comments

Have you noticed the subtle increase in font sizes around web? I've been noticing it on especially on sites targeting programmers like hn it seems a lot more people are having vision problems
  • by znpy on 1/13/23, 10:47 AM

    I have definitely noticed that i cannot fcking resize a browser window anymore.

    I’m on a large 24” display running at 1920x1200 resolution.

    If I resize a browser window to make it smaller (you know, so i can multitask) now the css think’s I’m on mobile and rearranges everything as if I was on a phone.

    It’s just awful.

  • by iamflimflam1 on 1/13/23, 10:38 AM

    Maybe we're all getting older - I've been gradually increasing my font sizes as my eyesight has got worse.
  • by throwaway81523 on 1/13/23, 11:40 PM

    I haven't noticed. I'm old enough to generally find that the fonts are too small. I used to rail about wanting to kill javascript, but more recently I've come to believe that we should also kill CSS, since CSS messes up rendering if you change the font size or the window size. I use reader mode in preference to whatever the site designer wanted almost everywhere that I can.
  • by thesnide on 1/13/23, 7:46 PM

    higher dpi makes it usually smaller. So maybe web designers are just compensating?

    I see a trend of microscopic fonts when screen sharing a 4k or more.

    i guess that they didn't want to increase the system font size not to loose screen estate. But then the webfonts have to increase.

  • by rcarr on 1/13/23, 7:45 PM

    I think size 16 has become the de facto standard everywhere. Before it was a free for all so it might be that the majority of the web has now standardised and it is now becoming noticeable?
  • by leros on 1/14/23, 1:15 AM

    I have noticed the font sizes getting a bit larger in recent updates to a few of the UI frameworks that I use. It must be the standard new thing.
  • by hunglee2 on 1/13/23, 10:31 AM

    LinkedIn articles have gone up several sizes - thought it was my settings but no, it's definitely upsizing
  • by satvikpendem on 1/13/23, 11:09 AM

    I haven't, where are you seeing it specifically?