The font size or text size is how large the characters displayed on a screen or printed on a page are.

How is the font size measured?

A font is often measured in pt (points). Points dictate the height of the lettering. There are approximately 72 (72.272) points in one inch or 2.54 cm. For example, the font size 72 would be about one inch tall, and 36 would be about a half of an inch. The image shows examples of font sizes ranging from 6 pt to 84 pt. In computing, font sizes are also measured as px (pixels) and in pc (pica).

  • How is the font size measured?
  • How to change the font size.
  • Font size in web design.
  • Why are most of the fonts everywhere small?
  • Related information.

How to change the font size

The steps for changing the font size vary by the program you are using. Visit the link below for the program you are using for steps on how to change the font size.

  • How to change the font size in my browser.
  • How to change the font type, size, and color on a web page.
  • How to change the font color, size, style, or type in Word.
  • How to change the font and font size in Microsoft Word.
  • How to change the font color, size, or type in Excel.
  • Quickly increase and decrease the size of desktop icons.

Why are most of the fonts everywhere small?

If you have a high computer resolution, it increases the quality of how everything appears by increasing the number of pixels displayed on the screen. However, increasing the resolution also decreases the size of everything including fonts, letters, numbers, type, and other writing. Most operating systems and programs now have proper font scaling support that allows for high resolution with bigger fonts but may require additional tweaking.

To change the font size of a printed page, increase the font size in the program you are using. If the program does not support changing the font size, consider copying and pasting the text into a word processor or other program that supports changing the font size.

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Font size in web design

With web design and CSS, font size changed based on a set of pre-determined font dimensions. Some of these dimensions include xx-small, x-small, small, medium, large, x-large, and xx-large. Font size may also be specified using Point, Pica, Inch, Centimeter, Millimeter, em, and percentage.

Specifying the font size in an HTML tag

The HTML example below is one way you can use the style attribute in the paragraph tag to adjust the font size.

Here is an example of 2pt font.

Specifying the font size in CSS

The CSS code example below would make any H2 tag on the page have a large font-size.

h2 {font-size:large;}

The above examples are two of the many different ways you can adjust the font size when creating a web page. See the link below for additional help and examples.

  • How to change the font type, size, and color on a web page.

Font, Font scaling, Point, Size, Type, Typography terms, Web design terms

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