lilskye
Level 1 (13 points)
Mac OS X

Q: increase mail viewing font size???

I have been tolerating this for years and am finally tired of it as there MUST be a way to fix this that I am unaware of.

 

I have my MacMail set to use an 11 pt Arial font when writing messages, which is a standard font size for letters, etc.  However when you are reading or writing your message, it does not DISPLAY as 11 point, but teeny weeny as if you are using a 6 point font.

 

Increasing this in preferences to something like 18 point simply makes your display look larger (like 11 point) but then the message your recipient gets is monstrously huge because you are really sending them 18 point type!

 

Why is this not a normal Apple WYSIWYG view?  I don't have this issue on anything else on my Macs (viewing Safari, Quicken, Quickbooks, Excel, Word, Text, Messages, whatever - only Mail messages.

 

There must be a fix for this - no?  I literally am to the point where I have to use a magnifying glass to read what I'm typing!  LOL!

 

Any help is appreciated.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Jul 4, 2015 5:04 AM

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lilskye

Q: increase mail viewing font size???

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Jul 4, 2015 7:51 AM in response to lilskye
    Level 9 (69,551 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 4, 2015 7:51 AM in response to lilskye

    Try selecting the window and then use command - + to increase it to a readable size. Command - minus key to return to the normal size.

  • by lilskye,

    lilskye lilskye Jul 4, 2015 8:13 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 4, 2015 8:13 AM in response to Eric Root

    Thanks for the suggestion, but this does not work, nor does the "Big A, Little A" become active.  Not when you are WRITING an email.  You can blow them up to read already sent emails and received emails, but what it driving me (and a LOT of others from what I can see) crazy, is why if you have your email set to write using Arial 11, it does write in that (so the receiver on the other end can see it as Arial 11) but what you see on the screen is Ariel 6 - a fraction of the size that you are writing in, making it ridiculously painful to write and proof a long email.

     

    MacMail never did this until the Intel incarnations and I've never been able to fix it.  I see online that everyone using Lion, ML, Mav & Yos are all still complaining about this with no solution, which is so odd, as usually everything in Mac is WYSIWYG.  It only does this in Mail, not in Textedit or Safari or any other program on the Mac.  It also doesn't do this on the iOS on the iPhone or iPad.  Only on the actual computer Mail.

     

    There must be a reason and/or solution. 

     

    Thanks!

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Jul 4, 2015 1:02 PM in response to lilskye
    Level 10 (123,484 points)
    Jul 4, 2015 1:02 PM in response to lilskye

    In Mail>Preferences>Fonts & Colors, what are the settings there?

    MailFonts.jpg

  • by lilskye,

    lilskye lilskye Jul 4, 2015 1:25 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 4, 2015 1:25 PM in response to BDAqua

    Its always been set on Arial 11 - I use it always for writing letters etc.  11 & 12 are generally used in legal documents, etc.  I never changed the "Fixed Width" thing - I have no idea what that is used for.  And I made the "level" lines be white since I don't like them in discussions (in case that has anything to do with it).  If you Google this issue you will see there are quite a few people asking this for the past few years.  It seemed to happen when I first got this computer a couple of years ago (iMac 2012-13), but does it as well on mine at work (iMac 2014) but both are running Mountain Lion.  (I think this does it regardless of Mavericks, or Yosemite though)  It would be easier to just change this setting to say Arial 14 or 16 so I could read it better but then the recipient would get emails that read in large letters like a toddler - LOL!!!

     

    Thanks!!!

     

     

    Mail Font Settings.png