A little while back my partner was surfing the web and a couple of websites she was viewing asked her to view the site in a different format and they went and changed the screen resolution and a couple of other things so she could view the site to their specification.

The problem I am finding now is that some sites I go to I can't read the words because if they are below a 10 point font size the lettering appears broken, making it very hard to read.

I've played around with the display properties and the monitor settings to try and fix it, but it has been to no avail.

The current screen resolution is on 800x600. I have a 17" CRT monitor.

Any ideas on what I can do to be able to view websites that have small writing clearly?

Stephen C, Perth, NSW

There are a number of places that have settings that affect the size of characters displayed on screen.


Screen Fonts
The very first place to check is the setting for screen fonts. This is in the "Display" applet, which can be opened in one of two ways:

• Right click on the Windows desktop and choose "Properties", or
• Open "Control Panel", then double-click on "Display".

In the display application:

• Open the "Settings" page
• Click on the "Advanced" button
• Open the "General" page

The "Display" area has a pull-down list of available settings for font sizes. Choose one that suits you. Experiment.


Font Settings
The second place to check is the font settings in your web browser:

• In Internet Explorer, open the "View" menu and click on "Text Size". There should be five available settings
• In Netscape 4.8 open the "View" menu and choose either "Increase Font" or "Decrease Font" to change font size in the desired direction.
• In Netscape 7.x or Mozilla 1.6, open the "View" menu, then "Text Zoom". Choose the desired magnification.

Now, changing the font settings in your web browser will not affect font size if the web page designer has used fixed font sizes. This is poor practice, as it assumes that all readers are using the same screen size and resolution. Fortunately most web pages use either relative font sizes (essentially "normal", "larger", "smaller", etc.) or cascading style sheets (CSS) instead of fixed font sizes.


Zoom options
In many programs, such as word processors or spreadsheets, there are Zoom options which allow you to zoom out (see more of the page, but smaller text) or zoom in (see a smaller part of the page with bigger text).

Incidentally, one reason you might be seeing jaggy text is your choice of 800x600 resolution on a 17" monitor. This makes the pixels very large, and means there are fewer pixels in each letter. I much prefer higher resolutions on 17" monitors - at least 1024x768, and if the monitor supports it 1280x1024. With a higher resolution settings, when you zoom in to get the text the right size to read there are more pixels per letter, and the outline of the letter is far sharper and smoother.

One other thing, which probably doesn't apply to you but may to other readers. Only enable Cleartype if you have a LCD monitor with a digital interface. These are typically laptops and high-end LDC monitors with DVI interfaces. On analogue monitors (CRT or LCD) Cleartype just makes the edges of characters soft and fuzzy.

To enable/disable ClearType:

• Open the "Display" applet in "Control Panel".
• On the "Appearance" tab, click "Effects".
• In the "Effects" dialog box, select (or deselect) the "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts" check box.
• Click "ClearType" in the list.

Please get back to us with more information about your problem if these suggestions don't solve your difficulties.

John Hepworth