I had the "progressive" lenses first, and just couldn't handle them. That's what they say though...you either love 'em or hate 'em. You really need to try both.
I really liked the look of the smaller lenses and had the progressives put in those. The optometrist wasn't sure they could accomodate the progressives, but they actually were more comfortable than the bigger lenses I used to have even though the area to look through was much smaller. I usually take them off all together for really close artwork.