It'l really nice to see that I can enlarge a font quickly within Mozilla, but would it be possible to add a pref to the usability that lets me specify the default scaling? I hate having to manualy enlarge almost every page I try to read.

Would being able to set a minimum font size do (bug 30910)?

No. A min font size is different from a default scale (like 110%, or 150%, or 85%). Min fonts mean you don't get stupid teeny fonts forced. Scaling means everything is bigger by for a percent :)

UI Design

Marking nEW.

Worksforme. You can set both default font sizes, and default font scaling, in the `Fonts' prefs panel.

I fail to see a default font scaling pref. There is a MINIMUM SIZE pref, but there is no default scale pref in 2001101221.

the view->text zoom menu option should do all that you need.

Maybe I'm not coming across here. Something is just not connecting. I want a FONT DIALOG PREFERENCE that says, "make the default scale percentage this..." I KNOW how to change the scaling manually with my mouse wheel or a dialog. Those do it ONCE, ON A WINDOW-BY-WINDOW BASIS. I want a DEFAULT PREFERENCE FOR ALL WINDOWS. THESE ARE NOT THE SAME THINGS.

The user initiated zoom/scaling setting works only for the current window. It gets reset to 100% for any additional Tab'ed windows or when you re-start the browser. So if someone wants to permanently reset the value, either you need a UI or some pref item to put into the prefs.js. Does anyone know if the latter is possible?

no need to shout. calm down and drink some cool-aid.

Arg! After writing a perfectly logical bug name ("*Default* font scaling pref"), noteing that it was different from font size, having it marked "worksforme" (even though it's a request for a feature that doesn't exist....) and having to re-open it, you went and marked it closed again! It's very frustrating for you to not understand my desire to have a default scale percentage like the one found in Opera. All that needs to happen is have a XUL thing in the Fonts dialog which is a spinny dealy with a range of 1-999 (default to 100% if no line found), and change the code in the Window.new to set default font size for the window from this pref. If I knew XUL, or was pointed at a "howto" + knew where the window.new code that was relevant was, I'd generate the patch myself. It's that much more frustrating how close I am to seeing this feature.

ok, the next step to getting this bug fixed is a spec, that is mpt's job unless someone else feels like doing it first which doesn't happen much, also, please open a thread on netscape.public.mozilla.ui (news.mozilla.org) which includes this bug number to discuss the issue. Again, there is no need to scream, shout, or complain.

First, I am perfectly calm. It seems to me that this bug has been closed even though the issue has not been addressed. I would suggest that it is reasonable for a person to be frustrated when their comments are so clearly being ignored. In fact the expression of frustration I see is fairly polite. I have not found that 'flippant' responses to frustration tend to be well recieved. On to the issue: Some people would like all web pages scaled up(down) a bit. While it is possible to do this on a page-by-page basis there is no way to do this on a permanent basis. For people with blurry monitors or special vision requirements it would be good if the user could permanently set enlarge the fonts. That would allow them to browse without having to adjust every page. While this issue would not stop a user from browsing it could make the experience unnecessarily irritating. This probably should also be considered as a accessibility issue under the "Americans with Disablities Act".

I see that attachment 72751 [details] has a bold red line around "Display resolution" and the text "Default font scaling preference" in red. Changing this does (or at least should) inversely change the effective font size; eg: by lowering the number one can enlarge the fonts. I see that the drop down list has the values "71 dpi", "96 dpi" "System settings", and "Other...". Choosing "Other..." brings up a dialog asking the user to measure the size of a line. As a UI design it seems to me to be non obivious and a bit hard to use. I think I would be hard pressed to use this to set the font size to 200%. I guess if we are just trying to solve this particular user's need then asking this user to set screen resolution would be okay. If we are trying to provide the feature to the general user then perhaps we need a more obivious UI.

Why don't we just make the font zoom set through the view menu persist between sessions and be the value used when creating a new window?

I have actually thought about this quite a bit. The reasoning is pretty subtle, and I won't be surprised if people call me silly, but here goes anyway. If you want to change the size of text, that's what the Size menus are for in the Fonts preferences panel. If a Web author changes the size of some text, it should be (1) for temporary purposes (e.g. headings or disclaimers), (2) relative to that preferred size (using ems or %), and (3) not unreasonably different from the preferred size (e.g. not less than about 70% or more than about 500%). If a Web author breaks (1), (2), or (3), that's an evangelism issue: not as in `hey, support our browser' evangelism, but as in `hey, stop being so fricking annoying' evangelism. So, firstly, if Text Zoom was persistent *and* the Fonts size prefs were persistent, the overlap between the two would become extremely confusing. And that would be bad. Secondly, WYSIWYG-mentality Web authors are fond of specifying font sizes which are smaller than the default -- especially in Web portals where they're trying to cram in as many links as possible. Text Zoom is a temporary mechanism for coping with such badly designed sites. It makes you expend a little effort, as a slight discouragement from visiting sites which mess with your preferred font sizes. (As a random example, one of the reasons I visit Slashdot more often than Kuro5hin is because Kuro5hin prints *all* its text smaller than my preferred size.) This way, it provides a small market force encouraging site authors to Do The Right Thing with font sizes. Without that force, I believe that five years from now Mozilla's default zoom setting would be forced up to 200 percent, and Web authors would be specifying 40% font sizes to compensate. It would be an endless escalation, and those sites which were properly sticking in the vicinity of 100% would be penalized. And that would be bad.

What about users with who for partial visual disability reasons always want larger sizes?

Exactly the same argument applies, with the addition that they can use the minimum font size preference (which did not exist when this bug was filed).

uid is being phased out.

See bug 65571, particularly bug 65571 comment 44, for why this is a bad idea. I would have no objections to persisting or having a preference for full zoom (bug 4821), but persisting or having a preference for text zoom is bad.

wontfix.

Mark as verified per previous 2 comments above.

*** Bug 214991 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 239738 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 241353 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

There is already infrastructure for this in current Firefox versions, for per site zoom. Global zoom is tracked in bug 332275. Should this be duped?