Creating Your Own Web Page View
"Any colour - so long as it's black." (Henry Ford on the choice of colour for the Model T Ford)
Problem: I would like to decide what fonts and colours are used when I view web pages.
There are options, within the popular web browsers, that allow users to over-ride the colours and fonts used on any web page.
Internet Explorer
Select "Tools - Internet Options" At the foot of the "General" Tab, there are a number of options that allow you to over-ride individual web page settings.
- Colors:
- This allows you to set the background and text colours as well as the unvisited and visited link colours.
- Fonts:
- Here you can set a default font for viewing web pages. I would recommend using the Verdana font if it is available. Other good fonts for web page viewing are Tahoma, Georgia or Gill Sans.
- Accessibility:
- Options to over-ride some, or all, of the basic colours on a web page. Try checking all three boxes ("Ignore colors…", "Ignore font styles…" and "Ignore font sizes…") and setting your own colours and font styles to see if this improves readability.
- Format documents using my style sheet
- This option allows for even greater control and is explained further in the using local style sheets page.
Netscape / Mozilla
Select "Edit" followed by "Preferences" then "Appearance".
- Fonts:
- This option allows you to set your own preferred fonts. You can then over-ride fonts specified on a web page by also unticking "Allow documents to use other fonts". I would recommend using the Verdana font if it is available. Other good fonts for web page viewing are Tahoma, Georgia or Gill Sans.
- Colors:
- This allows you to set the background and text colours as well as the unvisited and visited link colours. Again, you can over-ride colours specified on web pages by selecting the checkbox labelled "Use my chosen colours…".
Firefox
Select "Tools" followed by "Options". Select "Web Features" then "Fonts & Colors". Again you can use this option to chose your own font styles and colours for viewing web pages. If you tick both boxes labelled "Always use my…", you can opt to over ride the fonts and colours used in many web pages.