# Increasing text size **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 10, 2008, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474 "2008-08-10T03:37:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2008, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/1 "2008-08-10T03:37:59Z")
How can I increase the text size when reading this board? I’ve got my text size in my browser set larger than normal; my eyes aren’t what they used to be. For most websites, my browser does what it’s supposed to, and I can make the text readable. But this site is overriding my preferences. I’m using IE6 on Win2k. I had too many problems with IE7 and XP on this older computer; I have no plans to upgrade anytime soon. I’ve noticed this problem with other webboard software. It’s like the makers didn’t even consider that their font is [sup]TOO DAMNED SMALL,[/sup] but yet they apparently coded to override the user’s own preferences in browsing, and I can’t find anything in the user CP to do anything about it. \*\*\* Ponder ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2008, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/2 "2008-08-10T03:41:52Z")
Use Safari. 😛😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2008, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/3 "2008-08-10T03:48:24Z")
What is Safari? I assume from the grins that it doesn’t work either. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2008, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/4 "2008-08-10T04:03:13Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] What is Safari? I assume from the grins that it doesn’t work either. [/QUOTE] Safari is the standard Mac browser. Under View it has Make text bigger, Make text smaller, and (if one of those is chosen) Make text normal size. It works. The grins are because I’m proselytizing. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/5 "2008-08-10T04:14:46Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] Use Safari. 😛😃 [/QUOTE] Or any other browser known to man. 😉 Hold CTRL and scroll the mouse wheel in Opera and Firefox. IE has it under “View \> Text Size” I think. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2008, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/6 "2008-08-10T14:34:36Z")
The font size for this board is hard-coded. IE 6x has very limited capabilities when it comes to its own text resizing, and when coupled with a hard-coded web page, makes it almost impossible to render a web page to a user’s satisfaction. That’s a polite way of saying the code used by by vBulletin is poor, and you are attempting to view this board with one of the worst web browsers in existence. Using a standards-compliant web browser such as Firefox, Opera or Safari (Mac), will render vBulletin’s short-comings null and void and allow you to adjust your text settings any way you want. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/7 "2008-08-10T15:48:20Z")
[QUOTE=Ponderoid] I’ve noticed this problem with other webboard software. It’s like the makers didn’t even consider that their font is TOO DAMNED SMALL, but yet they apparently coded to override the user’s own preferences in browsing, and I can’t find anything in the user CP to do anything about it. [/quote] The makers probably don’t use the same screen size & resolution that you do, so to them, it’s not TOO DAMNED SMALL, but JUST RIGHT. Shame on them, but it’s a common developer error. Much of HP’s peripheral software is worse – they tend to design non-sizable windows that work for the hires screens used by the developers, but don’t fit on users’ screens at last year’s resolutions. It’s bad enough when the OK button is off the screen, but if the default action for a keyboard RETURN is _not_ OK, it makes the software useless. Of course their solution is for you to buy a new computer. What are you using last year’s model for, dummy? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2008, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/8 "2008-08-10T15:59:40Z")
Firefox has a setting for altering text size under the View menu; I’ve completely stopped using M$IE but I think it has the same thing. Another way of implementing it is: 1. Turn on NumLock. 2. Hold down Ctrl key and hit the (+) sign – the one on the number pad, not the one you get from Shift-(=). Wait to see the results; rinse and repeat as needed. (To revert to normal, use Ctrl-0 (i.e., the number pad’s zero), or Ctrl-(-) (i.e., minus on the number pad) to shrink size one step, repeatably.) ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/9 "2008-08-10T21:41:18Z")
On my machine, Ctrl-0 had no effect. The others worked just fine. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/10 "2008-08-11T05:20:44Z")
[QUOTE=Slacker] Or any other browser known to man. 😉 Hold CTRL and scroll the mouse wheel in Opera and Firefox. IE has it under “View \> Text Size” I think. [/QUOTE] Nope, I can confirm from memory (my IE7 is broken for no discernible reason so I can’t test, but it forced me into firefox which I’m acutually enjoying more) that ctrl+scroll-wheel works there as well. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/11 "2008-08-11T17:40:26Z")
You can alleviate the problem for IE6. Here’s the way to access the relevant option in IE7, which should be similar. Click on tools/internet options. On the window that appears, click the “accessibility” button in the lower right. Then check the box for the option “ignore font sizes specified on webpages”. You should then be able to change the font sizes as you want. If this doesn’t get you to the accessibility options, a search of IE help for “accessibility” should tell you how to do it. This was posted in ATMB many moons ago. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/12 "2008-08-14T10:35:44Z")
[QUOTE=rowrrbazzle] Click on tools/internet options. On the window that appears, click the “accessibility” button in the lower right. Then check the box for the option “ignore font sizes specified on webpages”. You should then be able to change the font sizes as you want. [/quote] Ding! We have a winner! Thanks, **rowrrbazzle**. I appreciate all the other prods to get me to switch to a better browser; one of these days I might risk doing it on this creaky antique of a machine, but for now, I’m content. > [@](#): > > This was posted in ATMB many moons ago. I kinda suspected I wasn’t the first to ask about it, but I couldn’t figure out a set of search terms that didn’t return hundreds of false hits. \*\*\* Ponder ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/13 "2008-08-14T13:46:26Z")
I obviously need to increase the font size, because it’s taken me this long to notice that the title of the thread asks about “text size” and not “test size.” :smack: “what tests in ATMB need more space?” I asked myself several times… ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/14 "2008-08-14T21:38:45Z")
> [@me](#): > > This was posted in ATMB many moons ago. [QUOTE=Ponderoid] I kinda suspected I wasn’t the first to ask about it, but I couldn’t figure out a set of search terms that didn’t return hundreds of false hits. [/QUOTE] On the off-chance there’s any misunderstanding, I wrote that only to indicate I didn’t discover it on my own. Maybe in the future I should just say that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/increasing-text-size/459474/15 "2008-08-16T04:42:27Z")
Or you could see your local optometrist. Personally, I’ve been avoiding that option in favor of Opera’s + function, so I feel ya. 😛