As someone with no design background whatsoever, what rules do you disagree with and why?
> Sans-serif fonts are used for body text
Serifs are most commonly used for body (perhaps this is a mistake on the authors part?), but all manner of typefaces can be used for body text dependent on their design and legibility.
> The line-height is 1.5-2.0
I've been building websites, designing books and drawing type for a number of years. I've never used leading/line-height that large.
> body text isn't pure black on white
This is a huge myth imo.
> (backgrounds) Use a pattern or simple image
99% of the time use neither.
> A text shadow is used to make headings readable
I'd recommend this as a last resort generally, adjust the background first.
> Blocks of text are un-justified
Justified text can be fine in many circumstances.
> body text is 16-18px and is scalable
Totally dependent on the design of the rest of the page.
> There's padding between paragraphs
From a pure CSS standpoint, this should really be margins, not padding.
I feel like this is a pretty terrible basic mistake to make in a web design article... Thinking of padding as something _between_ elements, as opposed to the space between an element's content and it's border seems like a really basic design 101 mistake.
With HD screens and proper font rendering, sans serif fonts are generally faster and easier to read. These are just some of my observations when doing A/B testing on a few products of ours and there's definitely also a cultural effect at play here. But the poster above isn't definitely in the wrong.
Is it possible that some of this is news-site-specific, due to their heritage as print media, and an online design aesthetic that references (or harkens back to) that?