There are a lot of people who are complaining about the size and color of the fonts on the new forum. Most are complaining of vision problems and headaches from viewing the page. The Internet is not meant to hurt people, And I'm sure that isn't the intent of the change. I hope this tutorial helps those people overcome these issues! Since the vast majority of people use IE or Firefox, I'll stick to those two browsers for this tutorial. Both allow some customization, though Firefox is by far the superior when it comes to modifications. I've listed which version of the browsers used in the screen shots. I strongly suggest keeping your browser updated to the newest version. You may be missing out in features and are certainly behind on security upgrades!
FIREFOX (version 3.5.6):
Firefox allows you to easily set the default font size and color. The minimum display size is set to "none" so the font viewed could be very small. Mine is set for 12 point and I'm not having any issues with it. This is a screen shot of my "default" webpage:
And here's how to change the settings. First open "Tools > Options":
Then choose the "Content" tab, and look for the area for "Fonts & Colors", in that section there is an "Advanced" button. Opening that lets you set the minimum displayable font, as well as setting the type of font displayed. Choose the size you want and select "OK":
While you're in there, let's alter the display colors, push the "Colors..." button to set the default text and read and unread link colors. Here I'm changing unread links to a darker blue:
Then I'll deselect the "Allow pages to display their own colors" and hit "OK":
Click ok and here is the same screenshot as above only with the formatting changed:
INTERNET EXPLORER 8 (Version 8.0.6001.18865):
Internet Explorer is a bit different, and less customizable. Here is my default display in IE, not a whole lot different from the Firefox one above:
Let's try changing the font size, find the "Page" menu on the far right of the tab bar and select the default "Text Size":
However, that doesn't seem to work in the FSM forums. I've tested it on other websites with success, but here it doesn't seem to change. One more reason to promote Firefox as the default browser! However, I'm not having issues with the default text size. Anyway, have a go at it and see if it helps!
Let's try changing the style to "No Style":
YIKES! That's not good! Let's try using Tools > Internet Options and see what we can find:
See the buttons under "Appearance? You can set your own colors for links and background. Here I'm deselecting "Use Windows colors" to show the default colors, you can set each to your own preferences:
You'll want to leave the language alone, and font will let you change the type, but not the size. Let's click on the "Accessibility button":
Here I'm choosing to "Ignore the colors specified on webpages" and this is the result:
Play with the other settings to see what changes you have at your disposal.
I hope this helps people with the adjustments to the new forums.