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How to make Preferences: Font Size take effect?

  • 4 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 36 views
  • Last reply by sfhowes

mcskwayrd
mcskwayrd
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Brand New to Thunderbird today, on Linux. I have version 68.2.2 installed.

I'm finding the displayed fonts to be too small, so I went to Preferences > Display > Formatting : Fonts & Colors. Changing the font size there has no discernible effects: menus, header lists, even inside emails, everything looks identical whether I set the font size as big as 30 or as little as 6. I tried setting it in Advanced (for Latin) but that too has no effect.

What must one do to make this preference change take effect?

Brand New to Thunderbird today, on Linux. I have version 68.2.2 installed. I'm finding the displayed fonts to be too small, so I went to Preferences > Display > Formatting : Fonts & Colors. Changing the font size there has no discernible effects: menus, header lists, even inside emails, everything looks identical whether I set the font size as big as 30 or as little as 6. I tried setting it in Advanced (for Latin) but that too has no effect. What must one do to make this preference change take effect?

Chosen solution

The settings in Display/Formatting/Fonts & Colors/Advanced only apply to message bodies of received and composed messages. Besides setting it for Fonts for: Latin, repeat with Fonts for: Other Writing Systems. Uncheck 'Allow messages to use...'. Sizes are in pixels, which are about 50% smaller than points.

The fonts for the Threads and Folder Panes, as well as the menus, can be adjusted with userChrome.css files (example), or by adjusting a preference in Config. editor. The latter will scale everything, including messages.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (4)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

The settings in Display/Formatting/Fonts & Colors/Advanced only apply to message bodies of received and composed messages. Besides setting it for Fonts for: Latin, repeat with Fonts for: Other Writing Systems. Uncheck 'Allow messages to use...'. Sizes are in pixels, which are about 50% smaller than points.

The fonts for the Threads and Folder Panes, as well as the menus, can be adjusted with userChrome.css files (example), or by adjusting a preference in Config. editor. The latter will scale everything, including messages.

Modified by sfhowes

mcskwayrd
mcskwayrd Question owner
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Thanks! Editing the Config file accomplished what I was trying to do!

sibber
sibber
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So glad you found a solution. Can you tell me which preference in config you edited? Not very good at this & would appreciate help. ty

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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sibber said

So glad you found a solution. Can you tell me which preference in config you edited? Not very good at this & would appreciate help. ty

Instructions are given in a link in my first reply:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1269361#answer-1256755

If you're on a Mac, Tools/Options = Preferences.