FF3 HUGE fonts


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I'm on Hardy, but this was a problem back when I tried out Gutsy too (with a less mature version of FF3). Here is a screenshot of FF3:

post-4821-1210180912_thumb.jpg

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The preference setting is already explained above but you can try hitting ctrl+'-' or ctrl+'+'.

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Edit > Preferences > Content > Set default font.

Sorry, to what? The setting is 'serif' which I believe is the default. I changed to Arial, no help. Also, I thought it odd that FF has the default font as 16, so I changed that to 12 but it seems to be linked with all other sizes such that if I change down to 12, some of the smaller text on pages gets even smaller :(. Same goes for ctrl + '+/-'

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The preference setting is already explained above but you can try hitting ctrl+'-' or ctrl+'+'.

You can also hold ctrl, and mouse wheel up and down. :)

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Sorry, to what? The setting is 'serif' which I believe is the default. I changed to Arial, no help. Also, I thought it odd that FF has the default font as 16, so I changed that to 12 but it seems to be linked with all other sizes such that if I change down to 12, some of the smaller text on pages gets even smaller :(. Same goes for ctrl + '+/-'

Solution: Click on 'Advanced...', then set a minimum font size. Voila, no minuscule fonts anymore.

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Unfortunately a lot of web sites do not respect the default font setting. When browsing the web you should have control over your own font size, not be subject to what the web developers think your eyes should be capable of. I looked at the stylesheet for this page and I can't really tell if the fonts are being set relative or absolute, looks like a mixture. Good CSS uses only relative fonts and never absolute.

My default font size is set to 14. It will make everything else smaller... But I think if you set the default font size smaller Firefox will do some legacy support for crap websites and set absolute sizes smaller as well.

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Neowin uses a mixture of percentages, points and pixels for font sizes.

But there's nothing with with it, they all scale (if your browser is doing it correctly), people forget CSS pixels are relative :p

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Neowin uses a mixture of percentages, points and pixels for font sizes.

Sorry to be a pain, setting the minimum font size doesn't limit the minimum font size when zooming in or out ('+/-'). And setting the default size to something smaller (even 9) won't affect the bigger fonts such as the text of the threads when I enter the Neowin forum.

I really think it's a bug with FF3, given that it's happened on two fresh installs on two different versions of Ubuntu. Yet I've searched everywhere online and no one complains of a similar problem. Again, this is only specific to FF3; FF2 and Opera display the page normally.

My last guess (I am a total linux noob) is that my display resolution of 1400x1050 might be making either ubuntu or FF shift into a different DPI setting. But really I have no clue. FF3 on Vista was fine :(.

Thanks for all your help guys

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Neowin uses a mixture of percentages, points and pixels for font sizes.

But there's nothing with with it, they all scale (if your browser is doing it correctly), people forget CSS pixels are relative :p

Pixels are relative to the resolution of the display, not to the default font size. Points are absolute they should not scale at all. This makes them completely useless for the web since you never know what kind of display/printer paper size etc. the user will be viewing with. Ems (and percentages) are relative to the font size of the parent. The top level being the default font size set in your browser. Internet Explorer doesn't support ems (or CSS).

As far as I know a reference browser should not scale fonts set in px, pt or any other absolute measurement based on user input (ie. the default font size). It should scale fonts set in px relative to the resolution of the display, though.

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Sorry to be a pain, setting the minimum font size doesn't limit the minimum font size when zooming in or out ('+/-'). And setting the default size to something smaller (even 9) won't affect the bigger fonts such as the text of the threads when I enter the Neowin forum.

...

It shouldn't, the default zoom works by changing the "DPI" it renders at, so the font gets smaller but it's size doesn't change. Text zoom should take that into account though (View > Zoom > Text Zoom Only)

And points should scale (same with pixel sizes) in Postscript there are 72 points in an inch, and an inch (physically) is defined by the DPI, so at 96 DPI you have 72 points in an inch, which maps to 96 display pixels. CSS pixels also scale based on the DPI, a 10px wide square at 96 DPI is 10px wide on screen, at 192 DPI it's 20px on screen (but it's width is still 10 CSS pixels)

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I don't think a browser should change the DPI... the DPI should be set in the X server because if you need higher DPI in the browser then you need it everywhere. This might be what Firefox does, though in order to scale the point and pixel fonts... but it should only change the default font size and then sites made with ems only will scale properly and point and pixels will work like they are supposed to.

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What are your font settings?

Press Ctrl+0 to reset any zoom that's been applied.

And if push comes to show, create a new integer value in abput:config called "layout.css.dpi" and set it to 96

I don't think a browser should change the DPI... the DPI should be set in the X server because if you need higher DPI in the browser then you need it everywhere. This might be what Firefox does, though in order to scale the point and pixel fonts... but it should only change the default font size and then sites made with ems only will scale properly and point and pixels will work like they are supposed to.

That's what the Zoom does in Firefox (Gecko), Opera and IE (although IE is broken and doesn't scale pixel values)

And points and pixels are supposed to scale, they have never been absolute values.

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And if push comes to show, create a new integer value in abput:config called "layout.css.dpi" and set it to 96

:woot: I can't believe it. That setting worked! The value was set to '-1'. THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU

I wonder what caused this. For reference, my specs:

Thinkpad T60p with ATI FireGL 5200 gfx card, running Hardy Heron, Compiz enabled.

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-1 means it takes the DPI from your X server, So your X server was misconfigured.

Other apps didn't show it since they take the value from Gnome, and Gnome doesn't take the value from X.

Things working well together is great, isn't it?

Edit: That should have been "if push comes to shove", I need to start reading what I type.

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