Did font sizes in the blue change?

May 13, 2004 6:09 PM

Is it just me, or is The Blue displaying in a teeny-tiny font for everyone? The Gray and the Green haven't changed, and neither has any other site that I vist. I first noticed this yesterday (May 12).

If it's everyone, I like the larger font much better. If it's me, anyone have any idea how I can fix it?
posted by Daddio to Bugs at 6:09 PM (22 comments total)

I've noticed that too, but only when I'm not logged in. I have changed my font preference to Georgia - I like a serif - so I suppose you could change yours to whatever it once was?
posted by malpractice at 6:24 PM on May 13, 2004

Yep, I notice that too when I'm not logged in. I just started using Mozilla Firefox on Windows ME, and thought it was the browser's fault. Noticed it in Firefox, IE, and Opera when logged out, and not when logged in. I'm using default font settings.
posted by ALongDecember at 6:30 PM on May 13, 2004

Yes, there seems to be a change in the default settings you get when you aren't logged in. Frankly, I didn't like the huge text size you would get before, so I think this is fine.
posted by deadcowdan at 6:31 PM on May 13, 2004

i think matt said that he changed the default to pixels from points for some reason or another.
posted by amberglow at 6:38 PM on May 13, 2004

you can change it in your customize page.
posted by amberglow at 6:39 PM on May 13, 2004

I changed from points to pixels because I've always hated the way it looked so chunky. I've been meaning to change it for five years, and finally did it yesterday.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:42 PM on May 13, 2004

Under IE there is no easy way to change the default; increasing the text size will not work (under mozilla it's OK). Since the small text is not easy to read, some of the readers might say good bye.

Matt, please change the default to a different value.
posted by MzB at 7:08 PM on May 13, 2004

Specifying font sizes in pixels is pretty evil, I thought everybody was agreed on that by now? (Even without the IE not being able to scale pixel-sized text thingy)
posted by fvw at 7:44 PM on May 13, 2004

I like it. But perhaps that's because, with Safari, the only thing tinier is the "17336 members | You are logged in as: MiguelCardoso / logout" rider.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:44 PM on May 13, 2004

i thought em was the way to go.

that way, people can customize their browser stylesheet and view your site in text large enough to read.

won't anyone think of the old and poorly sighted people?!
posted by Stynxno at 9:42 PM on May 13, 2004

Some of you guys log out, right?
posted by dash_slot- at 1:21 AM on May 14, 2004

Pfft. Only on a few computers at work.
posted by malpractice at 3:14 AM on May 14, 2004

i started seeing this two days ago, after i changed to the latest firefox nightly, but the only thing affected is the "you are logged in as quonsar, there have been xxx posts and yyy comments since you last login". the rest of my page renders as i desire. i am always logged in. on the customize page, my fonts are set to tahoma 9 and tahoma 8 respectively. interesting note - my font size and selection render faithfully on all three subsites, but my choice to have external links open in new windows is ignored on metatalk and axme.
posted by quonsar at 8:19 AM on May 14, 2004

if you're taking votes, it seems awfully tiny to me. i only know about it because a friend reads mefi but isn't a member -- he showed me what his screen looks like and it was pretty tough to read. he was on a standard 17 inch moniter, running IE.
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 10:37 AM on May 14, 2004

17-inch "monitor"

like i care about spelling, whatEVER
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 11:49 AM on May 14, 2004

the only thing affected is the "you are logged in as quonsar, there have been xxx posts and yyy comments since you last login"

ditto for me.
posted by rhapsodie at 12:22 PM on May 14, 2004

(when did i become quonsar?)
posted by rhapsodie at 12:23 PM on May 14, 2004

*checks inside pants*
posted by quonsar at 1:06 PM on May 14, 2004

there have been xxx posts

I didn't see any xxx posts. Are you talking about 111's, because I didn't see any pictures ;(
posted by The God Complex at 1:52 PM on May 14, 2004

This is a bad, bad, bad, bad decision. If you want to have a consistent font size across different monitors, do NOT put it in pixels. I thought everyone already knew this?

Putting text sizes in pixels is a good way to piss off a lot of people.

Use ems instead. Please, Matt.
posted by beth at 8:47 PM on May 15, 2004

(Less than perfect) solution for the IE users out there...

1) Go to the "Tools" menu and select "Internet Options".
2) Near the bottom right of the "General" tab, click the "Accessibility" button
3) Under "Formatting", select the checkbox next to "Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages".
4) You should now be able to resize the text on MeFi to your hearts content using the menu View->Text Size.

Of course, this will affect all other sites viewed as well, so you may find that you will need to resize the text on a regular basis (if you have a wheel mouse, you can click the Ctrl key and scroll up/down to dynamically change the font size).
posted by filmgoerjuan at 1:47 PM on May 16, 2004

filmgoerjuan, thank you! Your tip was a great help.
posted by Harvey Birdman at 7:54 PM on May 16, 2004