COMPUTER TIPS
& TRICKS
January
2006
Picking Fonts for
Web Browsers
Many
websites do not specify a font and thus your browser default font is
used. Here we will describe how you can change your browser
font, and the size of the font. The most common desire is to
make the font larger. This is the easiest to do. Note that the Senior Center website font is 15pt Times New
Roman,
which was judged to be best for senior eyes. Therefore, using
these methods for changing the font will have no effect.
Font
Size
Your
browser font size can be changed in Internet Explorer by going to the
View menu and clicking on Text Size. You will probably find
that "Medium" is checked. Try one of the other sizes to see
if that is suitable for your screen resolution. For the
Netscape browser, go to the View menu and click on "Text Zoom."
Font Type
The
interface for changing the font type in Internet Explorer and AOL is
the same, but you get there in different ways. With IE, go to Tools
> Internet Options to open the control panel. With
AOL, go to Settings > Preferences, then under
"Organization" click "Internet Properties".
Down
at the bottom of the "General" page you will see a button marked
"Fonts"--clicking it opens a window where you can select the font you
want to have as a default.
For
readability, keep it simple: Arial or Times New Roman. For plain text,
you can do the same, or use Courier New for that typewriter look.
Now,
with Netscape Navigator, go to Edit > Preferences,
then under the "Appearance" category select "Fonts". Notice
that the font size can be changed here also.
Select
whether proportional text should be Serif (like Times Roman) or
Sans-serif (like Arial). Then specify the font size you want for
proportional text-normal size is 12 pt., but you can go larger or
smaller if you want. You can also choose fonts for Serif, Sans-Serif,
Cursive, Fantasy, and Monospace but I don't think it will make much of
a difference on most sites.
Font Choices
To
see what fonts are available in your computer, click the Start button
and then Run. Type "fonts" and wait to see a listing of all
the
fonts. If you double click on one of the names, you will see
a
good sample of it's characteristics. If you are looking for
other
similar fonts to one you know, click the [AB] icon at the top for a
Similarity feature. There is a pull-down menu under "List
fonts
by similarity to: ". Put your known font in there, and you
will
get a listing identifying the similarity.
Now you are in control of your
fonts.
