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I never know how to size my text...

Reason is that it depends on the font...14px Times new Roman is NOT the same size as 14px Roboto Slab for example...

What kind of units should I use for print, so it's readable for flyers and brochures?

I'm looking for an idea on size for:

H1
H2
h3
P

Ect...I'm a web guy, so no idea about print;)

I try to use Adobe AI for print, so to make things even more confusing...what if I change the text to outlines? What size then?

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First of all, since you're a web guy, going to print you will normally size fonts in points (PT) instead of pixels (PX). Pixels are generally a screen-related measurement and you can surely google the difference between these two.

Short explanation: Illustrator and Indesign will measure fonts in points (PT) by default and 99% of print professionals will keep this default setting (unless the situation requires switching to pixels).

Then, as Axel said there is no fixed rule, as you probably did for web/css where you define each font style in your css in explicitly in writing.

For print its generally a custom job and it all depends on the amount of text. For a flyer you could go lets say 16-20 points for the biggest style (namely H1) then reduce for smaller styles.

Your bodytext (the equivalent of P in css) should be between 8-10-12 points (but again feel free to experiment and adjust to your content).

Changing to outlines removes the editing capability of a text so hopefully you will use this with caution. Also changing to outlines is a "pre-press" option which will not affect your composition, so it should not influence the sizing of your fonts.

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  • Thanks, what I'm most concerned about is legibility, I want the text to be big enough, but not too much...any accessibility guidelines for print like they have for the web?
    – Bruno Vincent
    Oct 21, 2016 at 0:01
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    No such guidelines that i'm aware of.. there are ofcourse countless books and articles. Keep in mind that print making is a much older craft than web so its not so much standardised, more likely these things come from each designers' personal experience and documentation. You could start by looking at what others are doing. Try some templating site like graphicriver.net/category/print-templates/flyers
    – Lucian
    Oct 21, 2016 at 6:08
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Normaly we would use size 32 max(if the size of the print isn't bigger than A4), so 32,28,21, 18 for the headers. In business we actualy look at what looks the best in the composition. And don't care about the actual size. Composition is top-priority.

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