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Wow thanks for taking the time to share all of this.

I'm a fan of 16px + for body copy. I think the browsers have it right most of the time with the default font size of 1em == 16px. You've got me thinking of experimenting with 18px now though.

Where does the 65 chars per line come from? I've heard 2 to 3 English alphabets length but I don't know the original source of that guideline.

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Yeah, I really encourage you to try bigger font-size -- don't be afraid!

The 65 char per line is to strike a balance between how often the reader has to skip to new lines, and how far that trip is. Why 65 exactly? It's more than 60, but less than 70, and its a nice round number I guess. Here's an article that discusses it a bit more:

http://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability

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