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Does it really take a degree in Computer programming to change the font, font size, and font color om a permanate basis? There is no provision given?

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  • 4 have this problem
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  • Last reply by tjohnson

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It's not possible to change the font, font size or font color without resorting to the config sys file? That's handy? I can hardly read the emails; incoming or out going.

It's not possible to change the font, font size or font color without resorting to the config sys file? That's handy? I can hardly read the emails; incoming or out going.

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This article about Font settings in Thunderbird might be helpful. Some relevant quotes from it:

  • Font and font size ("Tools -> Options -> Display -> Formatting -> Fonts..."):
    • Ensure that the "Fonts for" choice at the top of the dialog is set to the language group that you want to change. Thunderbird treats Unicode messages (for example, UTF-8) as being in the same language group as your system. (Thunderbird 3beta does not, so: For Unicode messages (UTF-8), set "Fonts for" to the language group named "Other languages". See bug 91190, #47.)
      • Thunderbird determines a message's language group from its charset (character encoding). Use menu "View -> Character Encoding" to uncover the language group and charset of an individual message. For example, you might receive some email encoded with western charset=ISO-8859-1, and some news feeds encoded with unicode charset=UTF-8.
    • Using the "Proportional" pulldown menu (screenshot), you can choose either "Serif" or "Sans-serif" as your default variable width font. Using the "Serif" and "Sans-serif" pulldown menus, you can choose the specific fonts (Times New Roman, Arial, etc.) that you want to use for each font style.
    • Font sizes are set separately for "Proportional" (variable width) and "Monospace" (fixed width) fonts.
    • Minimum font size: it's useful to choose a minimum font size if you sometimes receive HTML-formatted messages where the sender uses a font size that's too small on your monitor. Overly small text will be enlarged to your minimum font size so that you can read it more easily.
    • Language-specific font settings: in addition to your standard font settings, you can also adjust the font settings for other languages that you use. In the "Fonts for" pulldown menu, select the language you want to change (e.g., "Japanese"), and then make your font settings as desired. (Note that the "Minimum font size" setting for a language group sometimes appears to be set when it is really None. This is bug 364336. To work around it, close and reopen the dialog.)
    • "Allow messages to use other fonts": Normally leave this box checked to allow HTML messages containing font changes to display in the way the author intended. Clear this checkbox to force HTML messages to use your font choices in this dialog. This is a single setting that applies to all the language groups.
  • HTML font preferences, for when you do compose messages in HTML mode: these settings are accessed via "Tools -> Options -> Composition -> General -> HTML Options". It is usually a bad idea to change these settings, because people who receive your messages might find the messages difficult to read.
    • Font: "Variable width" is default. Using "Variable width" actually doesn't do anything to the text in the message body; it just leaves the font style unspecified. Using "Fixed width" means that your message text will specifically be marked as fixed width (using [http://www.faqs.org/docs/htmltut/_TT.html <tt> tags]).
    • Size: "Medium" is default, and using this actually just leaves the font size unspecified. This is the recommended setting, since recipients will then see your message text displayed according to the default font-size settings in their mail clients. Keep in mind that people do not all have their monitor resolutions set the same as yours, so that if you choose a larger or smaller font size because it looks "right" on your monitor, you can't be sure how it will look on the recipient's monitor.
    • Color: if you must.
See also: Default HTML font for new messages - Thunderbird

Modified by tjohnson