Bitstream Charter = smaller font size and line spacing?

Question

I'm currently writing a paper. I have to follow certain formatting guidelines one of which states that the font size is to be 12 pt. I also have to have 1.5 line spacing.

In my preamble I therefore set

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,oneside]{scrartcl}
\usepackage[onehalfspacing]{setspace} 

This seems to work (i.e. the font size "looks like" 12 pt). I've since decided to use Bitstream Charter as my main body font, so I use

\usepackage[bitstream-charter]{mathdesign}

This results in my serif font being changed to Bitstream Charter as I wanted. However, the font "looks smaller" (and possibly also the line spacing). I've attached two screenshots one with the default font and one with Bitstream (same zoom level).

My question is: Am I imagining this? If not, is there anything I can do to make the font size 12 pt?

Answer 1

Fonts size are not exact values. So fonts can "look smaller" (and it could also be that the font is actually scaled). But with the scrartcl class you can use a larger fontsize with fontsize=13pt.