bad eyes and small fonts

pax · October 11, 2005, 10:29 PM

Hey guys ~

Since TFL moved to the latest version of vB, I can no longer easily adjust the font to suit my wimpy eyes. Neither ctrl + mouse wheel, nor view/font/larger works.

Any chance you can hack something to make fonts adjustable again?

Many thanks,

pax

**Mal H** · October 11, 2005, 10:39 PM

pax - I don't know the final answer on fixing the font problem, but here's a clue for tyme: Font resizing works fine on Firefox, but seems to be disabled on IE. In other words, the upgrade doesn't appear to be the culprit, but it might need an "adjustment" to accomodate IE. I recall other situations where something didn't work under IE and tyme or Rich were able to tweak something. Maybe that's the case here.

**tyme** · October 12, 2005, 02:38 AM

Tools->Internet Options->General->Accessibility
check "ignore font sizes"

Otherwise, use firefox. I think it's a bug in IE.

**Mal H** · October 12, 2005, 09:17 AM

"I think it's a bug in IE."
What are the odds of that?

pax - The fix tyme suggested works, but it might cause some text size problems on other sites. You should seriously consider using Firefox. It doesn't remove or replace IE. It doesn't even have to be your default browser; you can still use IE for any applications you want.

Firefox isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I think the tab feature alone and somewhat bug free running is worth the cost ($0.00).

pax · October 12, 2005, 11:13 AM

tyme ~

Thanks. Done that, hated what it did to other sites. Might go back to it anyway.

Mal ~

Thanks. IE is stinky, but ... well ... I'm used to it, dangit. (Can you picture me as a crotchety old lady, griping about how much better software was in my youth? ... You know, back in the days of 64K motherboards ...)

pax

**tyme** · October 12, 2005, 11:24 AM

What is there to get used to in a web browser? It's just a tool to browse the web, and IE routinely screws up rendering of web pages. Not to mention the nightmare of activex.

**Mal H** · October 12, 2005, 01:29 PM

pax, pax, pax,

How long did it take you to get used to IE? I'll answer that for you - no time at all. That's because it was the only game in town "in the beginning" (there were actually a few others, but only on non-IBM compatible platforms). I'm guessing you had no choice. IE was bundled with the other MS opsys offerings. It was hard not to use it and get "used to it".

Now there are choices, and some are better than others. As I mentioned above, you can still use IE, most of the time if you wish. I'm willing to wager that that time will become less and less as (if) you work with Firefox.

*************************************************

"... how much better software was in my youth ..."

Ever heard of TopView? I didn't think so. I was forced to use it for a short while until I showed my coworkers that Windows (a competitor), even the early realeases, was actually much better. TopView died a natural and timely death.

*************************************************
tyme, I really like your signature line, it says a lot.

(Hope it's not in reference to the originator of this thread.

)

gfen · October 12, 2005, 02:38 PM

Back in the day (always like when I can start off like that), your choices were Mosaic or...Mosaic. Then Netscape came along and reigned supreme til IE 4 knocked it off the top spot.

I have zero interest in going back to Netscape, or any of its derivitves, on a Windows machine, and yet I find that Safari, on the Mac (which is a Netscape derivitve) is the bomb diggity.

Yes, that's right. Bomb diggity.

What's this got to do with anything? NOTHING! But, I felt like typing..

gfen, who thinks Lynx is still the best.

MillCreek · October 12, 2005, 02:50 PM

Back in the day, we used a Unix text client to read plaintext messages on Usenet using our 300 baud accoustic couplers! None of this fancy 'graphical user interface' or 'World Wide Web' stuff for us! If we needed the text enlarged, we got a magnifying glass for our amber screen terminals, by cracky!

gfen · October 12, 2005, 02:58 PM

Still got my acoustic coupler in a closet, somewhere. But, I never had amber or green screen, I had a paperwhite monitor.

kingudaroad · October 12, 2005, 06:17 PM

Pax, You can also adjust your screen resolution if you haven't already. Right click on the middle of your screen with all windows closed, go to properties,click the settings tab, move the screen resolution bar all the way to the left, click apply, and everything gets bigger.

spacemanspiff · October 12, 2005, 06:22 PM

man i miss being able to call all this the "GOOEY".

spacemanbringbackDOS5.0!!!!spiff

sm · October 12, 2005, 09:00 PM

Letter #1

Dear Five Young men belonging to pax,

In particular the young one playing catch-up on math problems.
Please take turns holding a magnifying screen up to mom's monitor, so she can surf the 'Net.

Regards,

Steve

---

Letter #2

Dear Crabby Homeschool Teacher of 5 young men,

Please excuse these fine young men from heavy homework and studies.
They are taking care of a serious need for their dear old mom.

Regards,

Some guy on the Internet.

----

I may be taking CIS/ IT, don't mean I know what I am doing half the time myself. I mean even "I" can use Firefox, and I hate Access as much as pax. I understand about the eyes...hence the layer 1 comment...the physical layer.

Kestrel · October 17, 2005, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Tools->Internet Options->General->Accessibility
check "ignore font sizes"

This is not a fix. It fouls up other web sites. IE can resize text on other sites, without doing this.

FireFox is a good browser, but has a memory leak (yep, even version 1.06). FireFox will also periodically drop TCP/IP connections. Opera is ok, but making fonts larger also magnifies and distorts images. Making your screen resolution larger is not necessarily a fix, because an LCD screen has ONE native resolution - the other resolutions distort images.

TFL has smaller fonts than just about any other forum I visit.

Al Norris · October 17, 2005, 02:30 PM

Pax, somehow I don't think you are older than me.

Last January, I loaded SuSE Linux onto an unused 10GB partition. By June, I had quit using the MS partition altogether, so when I upgraded form SuSE 9.1 to 9.3, I wiped the HD. Haven't looked back. Don't miss a thing.

Moral: If I can learn, so can you.

Now as to FireFox. Doesn't the MS version have that little magnifier tool? (keyboard shortcut = ctrl+ or ctrl- ) My Linux version does and it affects only the website I used it with. That is, I have magnified a couple, all the rest stay at the original size. And... it only affects text, not images.

**Mal H** · October 17, 2005, 04:52 PM

Yes, Firefox for MS does have the text size shortcuts (ctrl+ and ctrl-).

**tyme** · October 17, 2005, 05:52 PM

Quote:

TFL has smaller fonts than just about any other forum I visit.

Where are you getting that idea? I just did a side-by-side comparison in Firefox and in IE, and the summaries for headline news on CNN are smaller(!) than the normal post text font size is here.

MillCreek · October 17, 2005, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Now as to FireFox. Doesn't the MS version have that little magnifier tool? (keyboard shortcut = ctrl+ or ctrl- ) My Linux version does and it affects only the website I used it with. That is, I have magnified a couple, all the rest stay at the original size. And... it only affects text, not images.

Thank you, sir! This is the most useful thing I have learned all day. What a great idea.

October 12, 2005, 02:38 AM	#3
tyme Staff Join Date: October 13, 2001 Posts: 3,355	Tools->Internet Options->General->Accessibility check "ignore font sizes" Otherwise, use firefox. I think it's a bug in IE. __________________ “The egg hatched...” “...the egg hatched... and a hundred baby spiders came out...” (blade runner) “Who are you?” “A friend. I'm here to prevent you from making a mistake.” “You have no idea what I'm doing here, friend.” “In specific terms, no, but I swore an oath to protect the world...” (continuum) “It's a goal you won't understand until later. Your job is to make sure he doesn't achieve the goal.” (bsg)

October 12, 2005, 11:13 AM	#5
pax Senior Member Join Date: May 16, 2000 Location: In a state of flux Posts: 7,520	tyme ~ Thanks. Done that, hated what it did to other sites. Might go back to it anyway. Mal ~ Thanks. IE is stinky, but ... well ... I'm used to it, dangit. (Can you picture me as a crotchety old lady, griping about how much better software was in my youth? ... You know, back in the days of 64K motherboards ...) pax __________________ Kathy Jackson My personal website: Cornered Cat

October 12, 2005, 11:24 AM	#6
tyme Staff Join Date: October 13, 2001 Posts: 3,355	What is there to get used to in a web browser? It's just a tool to browse the web, and IE routinely screws up rendering of web pages. Not to mention the nightmare of activex. __________________ “The egg hatched...” “...the egg hatched... and a hundred baby spiders came out...” (blade runner) “Who are you?” “A friend. I'm here to prevent you from making a mistake.” “You have no idea what I'm doing here, friend.” “In specific terms, no, but I swore an oath to protect the world...” (continuum) “It's a goal you won't understand until later. Your job is to make sure he doesn't achieve the goal.” (bsg)

October 12, 2005, 02:50 PM	#9
MillCreek Senior Member Join Date: December 30, 2004 Location: Snohomish County, Washington USA Posts: 326	Back in the day, we used a Unix text client to read plaintext messages on Usenet using our 300 baud accoustic couplers! None of this fancy 'graphical user interface' or 'World Wide Web' stuff for us! If we needed the text enlarged, we got a magnifying glass for our amber screen terminals, by cracky! __________________ Regards, MillCreek Snohomish County, Washington USA

October 12, 2005, 06:22 PM	#12
spacemanspiff Senior Member Join Date: January 16, 2002 Location: alaska Posts: 3,498	man i miss being able to call all this the "GOOEY". spacemanbringbackDOS5.0!!!!spiff __________________ "Every man alone is sincere; at the entrance of a second person hypocrisy begins." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." - Soren Kierkegaard

October 11, 2005, 10:29 PM	#1
pax Senior Member Join Date: May 16, 2000 Location: In a state of flux Posts: 7,520	bad eyes and small fonts Hey guys ~ Since TFL moved to the latest version of vB, I can no longer easily adjust the font to suit my wimpy eyes. Neither ctrl + mouse wheel, nor view/font/larger works. Any chance you can hack something to make fonts adjustable again? Many thanks, pax __________________ Kathy Jackson My personal website: Cornered Cat

October 11, 2005, 10:39 PM	#2
Mal H Staff Join Date: March 20, 1999 Location: Somewhere in the woods of Northern Virginia Posts: 16,955	pax - I don't know the final answer on fixing the font problem, but here's a clue for tyme: Font resizing works fine on Firefox, but seems to be disabled on IE. In other words, the upgrade doesn't appear to be the culprit, but it might need an "adjustment" to accomodate IE. I recall other situations where something didn't work under IE and tyme or Rich were able to tweak something. Maybe that's the case here.

October 12, 2005, 09:17 AM	#4
Mal H Staff Join Date: March 20, 1999 Location: Somewhere in the woods of Northern Virginia Posts: 16,955	"I think it's a bug in IE." What are the odds of that? pax - The fix tyme suggested works, but it might cause some text size problems on other sites. You should seriously consider using Firefox. It doesn't remove or replace IE. It doesn't even have to be your default browser; you can still use IE for any applications you want. Firefox isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I think the tab feature alone and somewhat bug free running is worth the cost ($0.00).

October 12, 2005, 01:29 PM	#7
Mal H Staff Join Date: March 20, 1999 Location: Somewhere in the woods of Northern Virginia Posts: 16,955	pax, pax, pax, How long did it take you to get used to IE? I'll answer that for you - no time at all. That's because it was the only game in town "in the beginning" (there were actually a few others, but only on non-IBM compatible platforms). I'm guessing you had no choice. IE was bundled with the other MS opsys offerings. It was hard not to use it and get "used to it". Now there are choices, and some are better than others. As I mentioned above, you can still use IE, most of the time if you wish. I'm willing to wager that that time will become less and less as (if) you work with Firefox. *********************************************** "... how much better software was in my youth ..." Ever heard of TopView? I didn't think so. I was forced to use it for a short while until I showed my coworkers that Windows (a competitor), even the early realeases, was actually much better. TopView died a natural and timely death. *********************************************** tyme, I really like your signature line, it says a lot. (Hope it's not in reference to the originator of this thread. )

October 12, 2005, 02:38 PM	#8
gfen Senior Member Join Date: January 3, 2005 Location: Lehigh Valley, PA Posts: 817	Back in the day (always like when I can start off like that), your choices were Mosaic or...Mosaic. Then Netscape came along and reigned supreme til IE 4 knocked it off the top spot. I have zero interest in going back to Netscape, or any of its derivitves, on a Windows machine, and yet I find that Safari, on the Mac (which is a Netscape derivitve) is the bomb diggity. Yes, that's right. Bomb diggity. What's this got to do with anything? NOTHING! But, I felt like typing.. gfen, who thinks Lynx is still the best.

October 12, 2005, 02:58 PM	#10
gfen Senior Member Join Date: January 3, 2005 Location: Lehigh Valley, PA Posts: 817	Still got my acoustic coupler in a closet, somewhere. But, I never had amber or green screen, I had a paperwhite monitor.

October 12, 2005, 06:17 PM	#11
kingudaroad Senior Member Join Date: March 11, 2005 Location: austin Posts: 735	Pax, You can also adjust your screen resolution if you haven't already. Right click on the middle of your screen with all windows closed, go to properties,click the settings tab, move the screen resolution bar all the way to the left, click apply, and everything gets bigger.

October 12, 2005, 09:00 PM	#13
sm Senior Member Join Date: February 5, 2002 Posts: 1,819	Sounds Like a Layer One Problem to me... Letter #1 Dear Five Young men belonging to pax, In particular the young one playing catch-up on math problems. Please take turns holding a magnifying screen up to mom's monitor, so she can surf the 'Net. Regards, Steve --- Letter #2 Dear Crabby Homeschool Teacher of 5 young men, Please excuse these fine young men from heavy homework and studies. They are taking care of a serious need for their dear old mom. Regards, Some guy on the Internet. ---- I may be taking CIS/ IT, don't mean I know what I am doing half the time myself. I mean even "I" can use Firefox, and I hate Access as much as pax. I understand about the eyes...hence the layer 1 comment...the physical layer. __________________ Use Enough Gun TFL Alumni

October 17, 2005, 02:30 PM	#15
Al Norris Moderator Emeritus Join Date: June 29, 2000 Location: Rupert, Idaho Posts: 9,660	Pax, somehow I don't think you are older than me. Last January, I loaded SuSE Linux onto an unused 10GB partition. By June, I had quit using the MS partition altogether, so when I upgraded form SuSE 9.1 to 9.3, I wiped the HD. Haven't looked back. Don't miss a thing. Moral: If I can learn, so can you. Now as to FireFox. Doesn't the MS version have that little magnifier tool? (keyboard shortcut = ctrl+ or ctrl- ) My Linux version does and it affects only the website I used it with. That is, I have magnified a couple, all the rest stay at the original size. And... it only affects text, not images.

October 17, 2005, 04:52 PM	#16
Mal H Staff Join Date: March 20, 1999 Location: Somewhere in the woods of Northern Virginia Posts: 16,955	Yes, Firefox for MS does have the text size shortcuts (ctrl+ and ctrl-).