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Resolved Set a larger type size in Firefox for Win 7 x64

Discussion in 'Firefox, Thunderbird & SeaMonkey' started by loninappleton, 2014/06/03.

  1. 2014/06/03
    loninappleton

    loninappleton Inactive Thread Starter

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    I am going blind reading screens in a new install of Win 7. I am a noob with this
    OS. It has many screen settings.

    But I am writing in here b/c the answer given at Firefox was just unacceptable (nowhere) and didn't seem to do anything.

    The goal is to stabilize the size of test at the usual Control + Plus keys.

    I am not experiencing any of this hardship in XP but I use 800x600 comfortably on that OS.

    In Win 7 the conflict seems to be high screen resolutuion (which is recommended)
    with the consequent microscopic type size OR fuzz gigantic Mr. Magoo icons down at 800x600.

    What's the optimum settings for legibility on a 19 in CRT?
     
  2. 2014/06/03
    antik

    antik Well-Known Member

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    1024 x 768 would be my vote.

    Windows 7 has ClearType font smoothing enabled by default because it looks better on LCD screens. If you are using a CRT you will get better results if you turn ClearType OFF.

    http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28790/tweak-cleartype-in-windows-7/

    In Firefox, my settings (Tools > Options > General Tab)
    Default Font: Tahoma Size: 14

    (Tools > Options > General Tab > Advanced)
    Proportional: Serif Size: 14
    Serif: Tahoma
    Sans-serif: Arial
    Monospace: Courier New Size: 13
    Minimum Font Size: 12
     
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  4. 2014/06/03
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Rt click the Desktop > select Personalize > (on left) Display > set screen to 125%.
     
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  5. 2014/06/03
    loninappleton

    loninappleton Inactive Thread Starter

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    I fiddled with that. Also will try the initial reply above here.

    I wasn't getting anywhere with 100, 125 etc. It blew up the icons alright to the point where things spilled off the screen. I cannot fathom why this is so difficult when my XP
    screen/desktop never had to be touched. The icons are about 50% smaller than what I remember that 125% routine to be.

    Let me ask it this way:

    I have selected Windows Classic (old style blue screen with no pictures etc.)

    What would be the settings to make the icons etc look like a standard XP screen at 800x600?

    Trying 800x600 on Win 7 just blows up the icons on the desktop to laughable size.

    I have not seen anything that looks even close to a _balanced_ view frame on the desktop: icons of a readable size in the trays (now too tiny) and icons on the desktop (usually too big.) And text almost always smaller than anything else.
     
  6. 2014/06/04
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Some fundamentals:

    1. Turn off any Accessibility features when adjusting settings.
    2. Set defaults at start of adjusting,

    Resolutions:
    800x600 - 14" or 15" screens max.
    1024x768 - 17" or 19" screens max.

    Using resolutions on screens other than the above will result in odd sized graphics.
     
  7. 2014/06/04
    antik

    antik Well-Known Member

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    To get what you want, you will have to create a custom theme, using your classic theme as a starting point, then save it under a name of your choosing so that you can restore it if some future update or mishap causes a reset.

    The names of the different desktop elements often don't give a clue as to their impact on appearance. You just have to play with things a little, always saving your changes under a different name so you can go back if need be. You would be wise to keep a notebook of what works for you, so that you can recover your unique changes in the event you ever have to reinstall or repair the operating system.

    Here is a tutorial on the methods for adjusting icon size:

    Change Desktop Icon Size in Windows 7

    Here is a tutorial which covers saving your theme:

    How to Change or Save a Windows 7 Theme

    Look at the bottom of the last linked tutorial for others which may be of interest in resolving this issue.
     
  8. 2014/06/04
    loninappleton

    loninappleton Inactive Thread Starter

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    Yes the links provided look very helpful. And they also acknowledge that
    all this in Win 7 is totally different from XP and a big PITA. I will print out the screen shots which I need to do to follow this carefully and will report on my success or lack of it to get a 'balanced' desktop.


    Editorial: I don't change OS'es very often and haven't in maybe 10 years.
    Some of these kitchen sink enhancements and the piffle involved in getting what used to be to be again is just 'skin' on the same old M$ software.
    What upgrades I've had to do is to get access to my owned programs such as Goldwave audio editor b/c development has ceased for Win XP.

    I am appreciative of all you do and will report back.
     
  9. 2014/06/05
    loninappleton

    loninappleton Inactive Thread Starter

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    In Firefox, my settings (Tools > Options > General Tab)
    Default Font: Tahoma Size: 14

    (Tools > Options > General Tab > Advanced)
    Proportional: Serif Size: 14
    Serif: Tahoma
    Sans-serif: Arial
    Monospace: Courier New Size: 13
    Minimum Font Size: 12[/QUOTE]

    Can you please say whether to use the checkbox at this advanced screen
    which asks to allow websites to use their own fonts etc rather then these selections.
     
  10. 2014/06/06
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    That setting will only be used when the font size is NOT specifically declared in the code of the Web page.
    If set to "allow Websites to use their own..." then then your selections above will have no effect.

    However, unchecking "allow to use their own..." will possibly screw up the page's intended layout and appearance. The page will not look as its author intended and very often the page will become harder to read. Best to keep it checked.

    If have difficulty reading a page the just use the View Menu > Zoom to increase the size of everything all at once.
     
  11. 2014/06/06
    antik

    antik Well-Known Member

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    I agree with TonyT's comments.

    However, I do not have the box checked to allow sites to choose their own fonts.

    Also, different fonts are sized such that font size is not comparable. For example, I used Georgia as the serif font for a long time. It was nice and big, but it does have odd numbers.

    I use Ctrl + and Ctrl - to zoom in and out.
     
  12. 2014/06/06
    loninappleton

    loninappleton Inactive Thread Starter

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    I have no found the sweet spot for this yet.

    What I'm seeing with the Arial recommended is what we called in the graphic arts business 'skinnies' as opposed to 'fatties' and the letter spacing is very
    tight.

    In some, it may be worse than before. But I will keep trying. I believe there is an Arial bold but bolding does not change the tight letter spacing. If I remember correctly that's called 'kerning.'

    And yes I've used the cntl plus and minus many times. There doesn't seem to be a way to 'set and forget'.
     
  13. 2014/06/06
    Flatiron2

    Flatiron2 Well-Known Member

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    I like NoSquint Add-on for Firefox. For text/font size.
    Set the Default Global Settings first to your liking.

     
  14. 2014/06/06
    antik

    antik Well-Known Member

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  15. 2014/06/06
    loninappleton

    loninappleton Inactive Thread Starter

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    I was just perusing my older and regular XP and sure enough, Arial is on here (writing from the XP machine) and the text looks fine.

    The monospace is 13-- all things I have never touched on it b/c I didn't know anything about adjusting them and legibility was good.

    The difference I noticed is that on here at WindowsBBS and on my setting the box to check 'let website decide' is activated.

    If Verdana is then on here or some other style then a website selection is preferable.

    Over on Win7 it's sort of a nightmare.

    In Firefox is there a default which can be selected if it gets too muddled? I am just dealing with a number of setup issues where I was in the comfort zone for the last 10-14 years.
     
  16. 2014/06/06
    antik

    antik Well-Known Member

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    There are two.

    Choose Help > Troubleshooting Information > On the upper right of the window that opens is Reset Firefox button to "Reset Firefox it its default state" which returns you to an as installed state without any modifications, plugins or extensions.

    If you click the "hamburger" symbol on the right end of the menu bar, and then click Customize at the bottom of the box that opens, there is a button in the middle bottom of the next box to "Restore defaults." which is helpful when you have mucked up the toolbars or done too much dragging around of symbols.

    Hope this helps.
     
  17. 2014/06/07
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Fonts used on Webpages vary greatly. It used to be that Web developers attempted to stick to a handful of fonts which rendered nice on pages in all browsers and operating systems.

    Web-safe fonts are no longer the trend or standard. Most sites use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to control layout, appearance and styling. CSS can control the font family, font size, letter spacing, line height, font decoration (normal, italic, bold, strike-through, underline, etc) and more.

    Thus, when always using your own selected font family and size the page may still appear difficult to read or out of proportion because things like letter-spacing and line-height can cause the text on the page to become hard to compare to other font selections.

    The real solution to your Windows 7 readability issues may be adjusting screen resolution and proper glasses just for computer use.
     
  18. 2014/06/07
    antik

    antik Well-Known Member

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    But why are the OP's readability issues acute with Win7 and not with XP?
     
  19. 2014/06/07
    loninappleton

    loninappleton Inactive Thread Starter

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    One clarification.

    I am on Windows 7 x64 and some of the links shows things not on the x64 version that I can find. That or there's another display option.

    But in trying to get through this I hit on two things working together that helped:

    Check the 150% box for text readability. And Clear type is on.

    Then use the mouse wheel option to reduce the icon size a bit.

    At least on the desktop this gets rid of the skinnies spaced too close together.

    After all the flipping and re-logging necessary I have a headache.

    And yes some reader glasses for this would help. But I'd need either another pair or trifocal lenses which I will not deal with at close range like screen reading.

    In reading your site back here on my XP the text looks a lot like the cleartype examples to choose from on the x64
     
  20. 2014/06/07
    antik

    antik Well-Known Member

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    Sounds like you have about wrestled this to the ground. Given your reminder about using the 64 bit version of Windows 7, I did find an applicable thread on the Mozilla site. It's old, but there a lot of sub links and you may find something useful.

    Display problems using Firefox with Windows 7, 64 bit

    https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/750228

    Also, in addition to the reset to default options above, Firefox does have a "safe mode" to help in deciding whether a reset is the best solution.

    http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode

    Probably should have also mentioned that when you set to default, Firefox does save your Bookmarks, Browsing history, Passwords, Open windows, tabs and tab groups, Cookies, Web form auto-fill information and Personal dictionary.
     
  21. 2014/06/07
    loninappleton

    loninappleton Inactive Thread Starter

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    That current solution had no pracitcality. It worked somewhat for desktop only.

    When loading an older program the dialog box spills off the screen, the mouse pointer is pretty big and all in all just klutzy.

    Still I don't know how to live with the skinnies. The earlier linked example shows 9 point type in the sample setup. I cannot get to that screen and thought it was for Win 7 Home or one of the other versions. This options zoo is getting to much for me. I can't even track what I've done. It's kitchen sink ware in which M$ has used too many user suggestions or just wanted to bring a new product to market.
     

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