The type you check least

Practice log, 15 October 2026

  • From design school to design engineering
  • 1 min read
  • 1 cited source
  • Typography, Mobile

My project cards had labels set at 8.8 pixels, on every screen size.

I had reviewed those cards many times, always on a big monitor. The old studio habit is to print the page and hold it at reading distance. I had stopped doing the phone version of that.

The fastest check is one line. It finds every font size under 0.6rem, which is under 9.6px at a 16px root:

bash

grep -rnE 'font-size:\s*0\.[0-5][0-9]*rem' src

It found my labels in seconds. For what the browser actually renders, paste this into the console at 390px wide:

js

const walk = document.createTreeWalker(document.body, NodeFilter.SHOW_TEXT)
while (walk.nextNode()) {
  const el = walk.currentNode.parentElement
  const px = parseFloat(getComputedStyle(el).fontSize)
  if (walk.currentNode.textContent.trim() && px < 11) console.log(px, el)
}
Three questions for every page
Run them at four widths before you trust a mobile layout.Kousik DuttaAll rights reserved

WCAG sets no minimum font size, so the floor is yours to set. I set mine at 11.

Want it as slides? Download the carousel.

The takeaway

The smallest type on the page is the type you checked least.

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