Oliver Reichenstein:
The size of your body text doesn’t depend on your personal preference. It depends on reading distance. Since in general computers are further away than books, the metric size of a desktop typeface needs to be bigger than the sizes used for printed matter…
Graphic designers without Web design experience are surprised how huge good body text on the web is in comparison to printed matter. Mind you, it’s only big if you compare it side to side, not if you compare it in perspective.
I’m far from being a typographic genius but I’ve argued for years that most websites have their body text far too small. Mr. Reichenstein just provided the ammo I needed, along with a great article on web font styling.