Web Browser Default Text Size

Why do I see so little of my default text size on web pages?

In a nutshell, it is because the overwhelming majority of web site developers think browser defaults are "too big". Many of the people who train site developers agree. Example: Owen Briggs, who wrote ". . . . most browsers default to a text size that I have to back up to the kitchen to read."

Instead of doing the right thing before doing design work, setting their own browser default to suit their own preferences, they presume you didn't change yours either, leaving it "too big" for you too! So, they rudely impose this judgement upon you by overriding your default within their page designs, regardless what your default actually is.

How do site developers know what size my default is?

They don't. They can't.

They do know what size it probably was when your browser was installed. The default size used to be quite large when the most common resolution was the Windows 95 default of 640x480, and continued to be rather large when, after the release Windows XP, the default and most common resolution had progressed to 800x600.

However, the median and most common resolution has since progressed to 1024x768, while the spread between lowest (palmtops @ 100 wide) and highest (3840 wide or more) has grown much wider. It is no longer reasonable to assume anything about the size of the default. At the median resolution on today's two most common display sizes, 15" & 17" respectively, the default is approximately 20% larger & 60% larger than typical magazine copy and front page newsprint, while PC displays are typically viewed from approximately 50% farther away than magazines and newspapers.

In spite of this evolution to text little different in apparent size from newsprint, and the superiority of printed letterforms over display letterforms, most designers continue to impose the arrogant assumptions that:

• it was "too big" when installed,
• you are using yours the way it was installed,
• it"s their job to make it "better", and
• how big you want or need it is insufficiently important to respect.

How about I visit your house whenever you are watching TV? Whenever you change the channel I adjust the volume down by 42%, regardless whether you had it up to max or down to a whisper or anything in between. Would you want me to do that? Is there a significant difference here?

Why do most site developers impose a size different from mine?

I can't read their minds, but here are some reasons they give to justify smaller page text size, as well as a few reasons I haven't seen expressed:

1. "Because I can."
2. "The clients want it that way."
3. "The content looks too cramped otherwise."
4. "Others do it."
5. "Ugly - it doesn't look good."
6. "It's my page. It should look the way I want it to look."
7. "Too much scrolling."
8. "Twice the size of toolbar text." ¹
9. "Users don't know now to change their defaults."
10. "Users are too lazy to change their defaults."
11. "Users don't know they can change their defaults."
12. "I know better than the browser makers how big the defaults should be."
13. "The page needs more content showing above the fold."
14. As a group, they have better than average vision. How do I know? I can't prove it, but think about it. How many people with worse than average vision do you suppose earn a living working mostly at a computer display?
15. Many site developers, if not most or even an overwhelming majority, are artists and/or perfectionists, able to see detail better than average, making them comfortable with things small.

How do I know what size my default is?

The paragraphs on this page use your default size, as well as your default text style. For a good place to learn how to make changes to your default settings, visit Syntactic's setting up your browser page or Steven Poley's what every browser user should know page.

Can I override this site developer imposition and make text big enough to read?

Whether and to what extent you can depends on your choice of browser, the site, your ability to understand menus, and/or your ability to construct a user stylesheet. Which type of change you choose to make will depend whether you wish each change you make to remain in place as you open and close the browser or move among web pages.

• Internet Explorer can make making text larger on many web sites require digging deep into menus to disable web pages from changing text size at all, which is what happens when web sites set the size with absolute values. Modern IE versions allow you to use a user stylesheet. IE has a limited function text size adjustment in the menu, which you can and should customize to place the shortcut on the menu bar.
• Netscape 6 & 7, Firefox, K-Meleon, Mozilla, SeaMonkey and most other browsers based on Gecko provide several ways:
  • Default size selection in "options" or "preferences":
    (e.g. Firefox: Tools->Options->Content->Fonts & Colors->Size)
    (e.g. SeaMonkey: Edit->Preferences->Appearance->Fonts->Size)
  • A menu option "Text Zoom", with keyboard hotkeys
  • A menu option View->Use Style->None (which turns off all author styling)
  • A minimum text size option in options or preferences
  • An optional user stylesheet (userContent.css, in your profile's chrome directory)
• Netscape 4.x:
  • A menu option, with keyboard hotkeys
  • Default size selection in preferences
  • Disabling stylesheets entirely
• Opera has an easy to use Zoom feature that makes everything on the page bigger, including images. It also allows the use of user stylesheets, and changing the default size.

Since what web sites are doing usually amounts to overriding your default, changing the default can be counterproductive or ineffective. If you make the default larger, then on sites that don't shrink text you'll no doubt find text is too big. Other sites set absolute sizes, which are not based upon your default. Hot key zoom is the simplest to apply, if available, but tends to make you go back to the well time and again to change size as you go from page to page. So, the best available tool is probably the user stylesheet. Unfortunately, your browser probably doesn't make configuring one particularly easy.

Where can I get a user stylesheet to try?

Try this, if you like serif text, courtesy of Karsten M. Self. If you like sans-serif text, you can use the same file. Simply use a text editor and substitute your favorite font for "Garamond" following the word "BODY". Elsewhere in the file, replace all instances of "serif" with "sans-serif". Do yourself a favor, and don't make Verdana your default. It really only looks and sizes well at sizes smaller than average. Customizing Mozilla provides examples of customizing you can do in your stylesheet, and Karsten also started a Wiki page called TWikIWeThey with more help on overcoming site designer tyranny. Jesse Ruderman also has a helpful user css page.

Epilogue

In the retail business there is a universal² management policy:

The customer is always right.

How different is the world of web design! Those that pay the designers are considered the customers, and the needs of the real customers, those that use the web, are usually treated as though their needs didn't matter at all.

Notes

1-There is good reason for toolbar fonts to be smaller than page text. Users quickly become familiar with menu items and what they represent, becoming routine targets to click to achieve quick action. Web page content isn't at all like that, mostly being unfamiliar and more voluminous, generally requiring some attention and focus to assimilate. Larger than menu page text facilitates this, while smaller menu fonts save some space to allot to the content, and some CPU cycles, by needing to draw to smaller screen areas, thus making the OS seem faster than it otherwise might.

2-Some businesses have an alternative philosophy.

Linkback

• UMD Web Design References: Typography