Font size for a portal

All little or a mix of little e normal font?

[Darksky]

I'm going to restyle my portal devoted to PC wargame.
The portala has a classical 3 column layout: left persistent column ( main menu, button banner, other nav link), right column ( visible only in home/news page..polls, other link ) and center wide column in wich are displayed main content ( news if in the homepage, or articles, review, and so on ).

So my question is: what's the best choice? Using the same font in right-left and center column? I.e., all little font ( verdana 9px or 10px, as usual for pixed font sites ) or the big verdana 12 o arial? The matter is that if i use little font also in center are the main content of my portal should look very hard to read. But if i use normal size font to make main content easy to read i loose a lot of space in the right and left column and the look should be terrific!

So, is good mantain differente font size in the same page? i.e., little font in right and left column and normal font in center area?

[vkaryl]

I would think this should be whatever looks good to your and your gaming members.

You might set it up the way you think it will look best, and ask your members for input. If you get a lot of "ugh, the headers are too large" or "there's too much scrolling because the text is too big", then you could change to the other idea....

[encyclo]

If this is a gaming site, 8px dark red text on a black background seems to be a very popular choice in that particular field. ;)

[Darksky]

Gosh! 8px dark red on black background?!? :)
Ahem, the "wink" let me to think it's a joke, isn't it? eheheh

However may color choice is, perhaps, the only thing sure.
I prefer light background and dark text. ;)

[Goiaba]

In Graphic Design is always good to avoid changing fonts, their sizes and styles all the time. But I think it's completely fine to put two different sizes of the SAME font. Just don't change font to another... that makes eyes tired.

[encyclo]

Darksky, yes I was (half)-joking in my last reply. In general, it is best to avoid using more than two fonts on a page, and to use relative rather than absolute font sizes which will allow the user to resize the text if they find it difficult to read. Yuu can use ems or percentages in CSS to make the text size relative.

Having said that, most gaming sites seem to be obsessed with tiny text and unreadable, very dark color schemes. It's up to you to decide whether making your site readable to a larger audience is better than the certain coolness of the dark, dank look which is so popular elsewhere!

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Oh, and I don't think anyone's said it yet - where are our manners?! Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com], Darksky!

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