Do you change your browser’s default font size?
Published 25 Sep 2005
At the risk of starting a font size holy war, I wanted to take a little survey about your browser’s default font size.
The first thing I do whenever I update or download a new browser is go into the preferences and change the default font size from 16px to 14px. I don’t even think about it— it is a hard-wired behavior for me.
I started thinking about whether this affects my view of the web world. I make sure my designs work at default font sizes, but after checking and verifying that things are acceptable that way, I am back to my world of smaller fonts, which are more comfortable for me. However, I realize that the way I’m viewing the web may not be the way most folks are. Most folks at my university, for example, use default sizes.
So I wanted to ask you all, do you change your browser’s default font size? Why or why not? And no flames, please. If you didn’t know you could change your browsers default font size, you are as welcome here as everyone else, and please respond.
Also, I don’t want to get into what font size we should use in our designs. That is a different question that is likely to lead us down a path that is too murky and controversial for this sunny Saturday.
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Commentary
Gerard McGarry writes
Sep 26 at 12:27 AM #
Andrea: I would have thought most people with a problem would change the screen resolution first as an indicator of overall problems with screen fonts.
BTW what method are you using to change the font size? I would typically use FireFox and the View, Text Size, Increase/Decrease options.
Andrea writes
Sep 26 at 02:58 AM #
Gerard: I am talking about changing the overall font size through the browser preferences, so that all my fonts are smaller than the defaults across the board. I do this because even having my screen at the max resolution my system will allow (and I have a 30” monitor) I find most web fonts too big for my personal taste.
If I need to make adjustments on a site by site basis, then I use the key commands to increase of decrease size for that site.
Elaine writes
Sep 27 at 02:59 AM #
I leave my fonts at the default and then adjust via ctrl+/- for individual sites. Mostly I go up a size or two, but it’s not universal enough for me to want to make a browser-wide change.
Bruno Torres writes
Sep 27 at 10:17 PM #
I do exactly the same thing as you.
Actually, I use to save a copy of my firefox profile folder, so I don’t need to edit the options over and over again. But I use, for default, 14px font too.