\documentclass[12pt]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{biblatex,lipsum,multicol}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}
\appto{\bibfont}{\footnotesize}
\appto{\bibsetup}{\raggedright}
\begin{document}
\nocite{*}
\lipsum[1-2]
\begin{multicols}{2}
\printbibliography
\end{multicols}
\end{document}
@Andrew: I usually try to keep the amount of explanation I add to my code in a relation to the amount and helpfulness of the information provided by the person asking the question (think of who's providing the MWE here, and who should be). But since you're asking... :-)
So this code mainly relies on biblatex's \bibsetup
and \bibfont
, which is the probably the safest (and most elegant) way to customize a bibliography's style. I'm appending \footnotesize
(that's 10pt in a 12pt environment) to whatever else is already contained in \bibfont
. I'm also switching to a right rag, which is a nice thing in bibliographies, and a must when working with columns that narrow. Then there's multicols
, restricted to the bibliography only. One might also try using \twocolumn
and \onecolumn
instead of the multicol package.
\appto{\bibsetup}{\raggedright\twocolumn}
\AtEndBibliography{\onecolumn}
Un-tested, though.
\small
command just before the bibliography, followed by\normalsize
at the end of the bibliography. Or alternatively use the\fontsize{10pt}{12pt}\selectfont
combo, where the first size is the font size and the second is the baseline skip.\printbibliography
and after it in the source will also start being effective just before, and stop being effective just after it in the output. If you know a bit about TeX's output routine, or have ever worked with, for example, floats, you won't be surprised to hear that something like\small\printbibliography\normalsize
is gonna backfire sooner or later. That's why there's things like\bibsetup
.