Ask HN: Why do websites have small fonts?

Yes, my browser allows zoomin in and out at will, but that's not the point.

My question was: why in the large majority of the cases I have to do that, why isn't "zoomed in" (by using larger font-size) by default?

Also, some sites don't change the width when I zoom in, so that basically means I can have either unreadable text or readable poetry (4-5 words per line).

Hehe, I thought somebody might ask that.

Yes, I have astigmatism and I wear my glasses when working on a computer.

> I generally use my browser’s reader mode

Reader mode is great but it can't be used on all pages. Also, it cures the symptom, not the cause.

I'm really puzzled why improved readability is not a concern for content creators and it basically boils down (based on the answers I received so far) to: "well, you can zoom in or use reader mode, websites are ok the way they are currently".

This I can understand and support.

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Intermezzo:

First off, if you're having your browser take your whole screen, "you're doing it wrong", aka here is my tip: Assuming 1920x1080px screen resolution, using 2/3 of its width (~1260px) should be enough for the most of the pages, and the remaining 1/3 of your screen you can use for other stuff you need (IRC, chat window, music player, etc.).

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Back to the original point:

The reason why this "small width" is happening is because of readability: extra long lines (anything over 100 characters) are hard to read.

But larger font-sizes would please both general-you (people who want larger width) and general-me (people who want larger font-sizes): I would be able to read the text without zooming in, and the same amount of characters per line would now make lines wider.