Egtverchi

Q: How do I adjust the FONT SIZE on Safari 10?

I'm using OS X 10.11.6, and I just downloaded Safari 10.0. It seems to have replaced the "minimum font size" with a "zoom" function; but there's a big problem: If I make the font size as large as I prefer, the page runs off the screen; if I make the page zoom optimal, the font is too small! So I have to either squint at the text, or keep sliding back and forth to see the whole page. This is annoying and stupid. Isn't there a way to adjust the font size ALONE?

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Sep 20, 2016 11:12 AM

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Q: How do I adjust the FONT SIZE on Safari 10?

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  • by s2art,

    s2art s2art Sep 22, 2016 6:20 PM in response to Mike Retondo
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 22, 2016 6:20 PM in response to Mike Retondo

    Thanks for that, I wonder is there a similar command for system wide fonts, I'm getting older and want to rely less on my glasses and things like system menus, aperture and mail aren't as big as I'd like them to be?

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Sep 22, 2016 7:43 PM in response to Egtverchi
    Level 9 (73,376 points)
    iTunes
    Sep 22, 2016 7:43 PM in response to Egtverchi
  • by Egtverchi,

    Egtverchi Egtverchi Sep 23, 2016 7:46 AM in response to Mike Retondo
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 23, 2016 7:46 AM in response to Mike Retondo

    Much appreciated. Harold Holbrook's reply (above) added one bit of helpful knowledge: Terminal doesn't appear in the Applications per se; it's in Utilities, which is one of the Applications. People who have used Terminal will already know this; I didn't.

  • by Egtverchi,

    Egtverchi Egtverchi Sep 23, 2016 8:51 AM in response to s2art
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 23, 2016 8:51 AM in response to s2art

    I don't know about system-wide fonts, including Apple's traditionally tiny font for its own menus, but at least for Apple Mail there is a partial fix:

     

    (1) In Mail, click on "Mail" in the upper left corner of the screen (right next to the image of an apple).

    (2) From the drop-down menu which appears, click on "Preferences"; it's second from the top.

    (3) A little Preferences box will appear. Click on "Fonts & Colors" (in the middle of the top line).

    (4a) In the Fonts & Colors box, there are three lines: "Message list font", which apparently isn't adjustable; "Message font" and "Fixed-width font", which are adjustable. (I'm not sure of the difference between the three - I normally use Gmail - but "Message font" is the one which affects the size of the message text, though not the header.)

    (4b) Next to "Message font" is the style and size currently set, and at the right, a button which says "Select...". Click on Select.

    (5) A new, separate box appears with four columns. The first three allow you to change the type style.

    The fourth column (far right) is your font size. Click on the size you want, or use the slider to choose a size in between the numbers they offer.

    (6) Close the boxes, and mail away!

    (7) Caveat: This only seems to affect messages I am composing in Mail. I have my Apple Mail account tied to my Gmail account, and when I view my inbox in Apple Mail, changing the "Message font" does not change the font size the same way; but hitting the [command] key and the + or - key (at the same time) will do so. Again, I don't know whether this is the way Mail normally works, or just the way it works when it's tied to another mail system.

  • by Egtverchi,

    Egtverchi Egtverchi Sep 23, 2016 9:07 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 23, 2016 9:07 AM in response to Eric Root

    Appreciate the link. As others have said, the simpler option in that thread - the one suggested here by Kaeve - is much better for programming novices like myself; I don't want to get into CSS if I don't really understand it.

  • by Harold Holbrook,

    Harold Holbrook Harold Holbrook Sep 23, 2016 9:16 AM in response to Egtverchi
    Level 1 (43 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 23, 2016 9:16 AM in response to Egtverchi

    Egtverchi wrote:

     

    Terminal doesn't appear in the Applications per se; it's in Utilities, which is one of the Applications. People who have used Terminal will already know this; I didn't.

    But you don't have to memorize the locations of apps or files - I know where Terminal is, because I've been using macOS for 16 years. But all you need to do to launch Terminal is to

     

    1. hit command-spacebar or click the magnifying glass in the extreme upper outer corner of the screen. This will bring up Spotlight.
    2. Start typing "Terminal" into the Spotlight bar. The "Top Hit" should be "Terminal" and on the right it will say "kind: App".

    3. Double-click the line under Top Hit that says Terminal. Terminal will open.

    4. You can do this to find ANY file, app or Word or PDF or image or movie.

  • by Egtverchi,

    Egtverchi Egtverchi Sep 23, 2016 10:14 AM in response to Harold Holbrook
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 23, 2016 10:14 AM in response to Harold Holbrook

    A very helpful suggestion. The particular problem here was that at work I am usually at a "terminal", which the dictionary defines as "a device at which a user enters data or commands for a computer system and that displays the received output." The system at work is sophisticated enough that we normally use the current term "workstation", but terminal used to be the word of choice. When I was given the advice to enter [code] into terminal, I didn't realize that "Terminal" was a function, as opposed to an object. 

  • by Harold Holbrook,

    Harold Holbrook Harold Holbrook Sep 23, 2016 10:29 AM in response to Egtverchi
    Level 1 (43 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 23, 2016 10:29 AM in response to Egtverchi

    "Terminal" is just the name of the macOS app that allows the entry of Unix commands.

     

    macOS is Unix at its heart, and Terminal lets you control macOS using the classic Unix command line.

     

    Command-line interfaces require typing as input and give text as output. They were mostly replaced by Graphical User Interfaces (GUI, pronounced Gooey) in the Xerox systems and by the original Apple Macintosh in 1984, which was immediately copied by Microsoft as usual. But macOS still can have many if not most of its basic file functions controlled by the command-line interface if desired.

  • by PAWatkins,

    PAWatkins PAWatkins Sep 23, 2016 5:06 PM in response to RedMolly250
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 23, 2016 5:06 PM in response to RedMolly250

    I had this problem using Safari 10 and macOS Sierra. Was only happening on some websites. The terminal command above has fixed it now.

  • by Crissa,

    Crissa Crissa Sep 23, 2016 10:26 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (17 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 23, 2016 10:26 PM in response to Eric Root

    Minimum font size is no solution to random web pages and crappy font sizes.  Every page needs its own solution, and if your preferred minimum is too big, the sites become unusable.  Text overlaps, goes off screen, etc.  Being able to change the size on the fly to read small text is indispensable.

     

    Why would you take away this feature?

  • by Auntmurr,

    Auntmurr Auntmurr Sep 24, 2016 6:45 AM in response to Egtverchi
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2016 6:45 AM in response to Egtverchi

    I was able to go to Preferences, Advanced, and Zoom down or up. Mine had gotten smaller, not bigger, when I restarted my computer yesterday, so I zoomed up. If the page gets too BIG, then you can go to the light grey area at the top of the page, move it to the right, then grab the left side and shrink it a bit.

  • by Egtverchi,

    Egtverchi Egtverchi Sep 24, 2016 8:15 AM in response to Auntmurr
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2016 8:15 AM in response to Auntmurr

    I almost always view pages in Full Screen mode, so I'm not sure this would work for me, unless perhaps I exited full-screen, resized the window, and went back to full-screen. Might be worth a try.

     

    Interesting handle, by the way . . .

  • by cmadiganMtl,

    cmadiganMtl cmadiganMtl Sep 24, 2016 8:28 AM in response to Egtverchi
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 24, 2016 8:28 AM in response to Egtverchi

    This frustrating.. changing the font size was a breeze before. Why get rid of it??

    I'll be telling my parents who have vision issues not to bother with the update at all.

    Argh.

  • by johnhs99,

    johnhs99 johnhs99 Sep 24, 2016 8:48 AM in response to Kaeve
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2016 8:48 AM in response to Kaeve

    Thank you, Kaeve. This works well.

  • by Harold Holbrook,

    Harold Holbrook Harold Holbrook Sep 24, 2016 10:06 AM in response to Crissa
    Level 1 (43 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2016 10:06 AM in response to Crissa

    Agreed, but the best solution would be for web designers not to let text overlap anything to begin with. After all, that's what layout is supposed to be about. If you have a string of text that the user has said should be 16-point, then the other elements around and below it should be adjusted not to lie under or over the text. This is called auto layout and word processors and publishing programs have done it for decades. It's lazy web programmers who can't do it.

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