What size of type is commonly used in Japanese books, magazines, or in blocks
of online text? Since there is unlikely to one single size, I'd welcome an
answer that either gave a rough range or listed a couple specific examples
from major presses, newspapers, or websites.

(I am asking because I'm curious about whether the complexity of kanji leads
to larger type than the type sizes that are standard for works produced with
roman letters.)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-27T17:51:54.820
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2017-02-28T11:11:18.190
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question
typesetting
What is a typical font size for Japanese text?
Typical main text of a paperback targeted to adults uses a font size between 8
and 9 pt. Most newspapers use 8.6 pt (≒3 mm). In footnotes or such, as small
as 5 pt is possible.

Websites use larger fonts. Condensed pages like [Yahoo!
home](http://www.yahoo.co.jp/) use 12px (9pt), but most recent sites prefer
16px (12pt) or so for main text. From what I understand, most global websites
(like Twitter) use the same `font-size` setting for their Japanese and English
versions.

The smallest font size which is practically readable is 9 pixels (this was
common in the Windows 3.1 / Mac OS 6 era), but [there is even a 7 pixel
font](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/36423/5010).
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2017-02-27T18:24:32.900
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2017-02-27T18:24:32.900
2017-04-13T12:43:48.447
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answer
Ordinary publications use fonts around 11Q to 16Q big for main text. The unit
Q (級) is the standard measure in Japanese typesetting industry, being 1/4
length of a millimeter (Q is from **Q** uarter). Thus 11Q = 2.75mm ~ 7.8pt,
16Q = 4mm ~ 11.4pt. The default font size of MS Word is set to 10.5pt in
Japan.

Actually, since Japanese characters don't have ascenders and descenders like
European letters, each letter is designed to cover up almost full body height,
so that they usually look one or two sizes larger than European ones with the
same nominal size. In exchange, we tend to need taller line spacing than
European books. Optimal line height is 166% (12⁄3) to 200% of the font size.
Compare page layouts of a Japanese and an American paperback.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/gzWgu.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/gzWgu.jpg)
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/igdzB.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/igdzB.jpg)

The websites usually prefer slightly larger fonts than Western average if
possible, because of the pixel density matter. For example, current text font-
size and line-height of [Japanese
WP](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AF%E3%82%B7%E3%83%B3%E3%83%88%E3%83%B3D.C.)
are set to 15.1px/24.2px while [the English
version](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.) is 14px/22.4px.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-28T11:11:18.190
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2017-02-28T11:11:18.190
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answer