I definitely am with webnauts here. Specify em or percent. AFAIK, the IE cannot resize text which size is specified in pixels.

Have you ever noticed, that website demos are always made for the chief, but the secretary has to work with it? What I want to say is, the website may look good for those who buy the design from you, but the visitors will have the problems.

I experience that a lot: When I visit a client in his office, I find 17' monitors with 800x600 and big font size turned on, because the 50-year old secretary just needs that. Now, who do you think will do the work and collect a list of websites which offer a certain product (or whatever example you want): The chief himself? In most cases, the secretary will get assigned to this task. If your website is not able to change font size (because the secretary uses IE ...), you have lost.

BTW: You could even add a feature to let the user resize the text with some easy-to-see buttons or text. See an example at
http://www.goldner-stern.de/

In the left column, it says

Schriftgröße ändern:
[ + ] normal [ - ]

which is german for "Change font size". Just try it. It is an adaptation of the script found over at ALA - I just used the website example above to show that this is *not* an academic issue.

My opinion: Fixed font sizes are the result of a company-oriented thinking, variable font sizes are customer-oriented. Now, it depends for whom you create the website ...

Fixed fonts are no advantage - they are a disadvantage handed down by age-old technology: the rigid demands of the PRINT medium. In print, you are stuck with the font size a magazine is printed with.

The WWW is different: Any information is supposed to adapt to the needs of the visitor - or the output device. Accessibility is the key phrase here. This is the beauty that underlies the concept of Tim Berners-Lee - dont let it be affected by the limits of an old medium.

Just my 2 cents (or shold I say ems? SCNR).

Alex