Font-size Problems in Windows-Firefox

In this particular instance, the font size problem was in a web browser, specifically Firefox. However, that was just a coincidence — the problem is a Windows issue, not a Firefox problem.

It happens like this: as we get older, our eyes like to read larger print. Sometimes, even in our earlier years, we prefer larger print, too.

Windows and many applications allow you to change the default font size that is displayed.

But, when applications display a dialog box, a font size that is larger than standard causes a problem.

You see, Windows requires the programmer to define the size of the dialog box. When the programmers design their dialog box's interface -- when they carefully decide what shows up in the dialog box and where -- they expect the standard font size.

But, if you change your default font size, especially if you make it larger, a larger font will move part of your content out of the dialog box -- and it vanishes.

Valerie had written me about this problem when she was trying to resolve a Firefox default settings problem. Unfortunately, she had changed the default font size in Firefox. This caused the pertinent buttons -- the ones to reset to the Firefox defaults -- to be invisible.

Let's look at two samples -- the normal Options dialog box and the one that Valerie was seeing:


(click on the image for a larger version)
(click on the image for a larger version)

Notice how each of the sections has a box around it in the normal Options box on the left.

Then, in the darker Options box on the right, notice that the fonts are larger, that the and notice (at the arrow) how the box outline abruptly stops. Part of the dialog box is missing! Even though the font size was increased, the box size did not change — so some of the information (in this case, a checkbox and a button) were lost.

Windows XP and earlier versions of Windows have this same problem with the standard Windows dialog boxes. If Windows would add a scroll bar, all would be well — but it doesn't.

So, it's an unsolvable problem — and entirely in your control. If you change the default font size in Windows, you will mess up the dialog boxes — most programmers don't set them to expand or have a vertical scroll bar.

Dialog box sizes are set by the programmer (of that particular program) in pixel sizes, based on the font sizes he expects to be used. If you set the default font size to a larger size, the contents of the dialog box will scroll into invisibility — effectively outside the visible window.

The only way to see it correctly is to set your default font size back to the Windows standard size.