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Changing the text size in your browser

Most popular web browsers feature a tool on the menu bar which lets you change the size of text on the webpages you are visiting. With this tool you can resize text on screen to a level you feel comfortable with. Where to find this tool differs slightly between browsers. Please follow the guides below for your browser.

Please note that text size cannot be changed on some websites.

Video guide

Text Resizing in Your Browser - A Visual Guide (external link)
A complete beginner's guide on how to resize text from Accessify on YouTube.

Instructions for different browsers

Internet Explorer

From the Menu Bar, select View.
Scroll to Text Size and choose your preference.

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Netscape

From the Menu Bar, select View.
Scroll down to Text Zoom and choose your preferences.

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Firefox

From the Firefox Menu Bar select View>Text Size>Increase.
This will cause the text to display on the web page one size larger. However this is a temporary change.

To make a permanent font size change:

From the Firefox Menu Bar, select Tools>Options.
Click on General.
Click on Fonts and Colors.
Set the font sizes. Minimum font size can also be set.

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Mozilla

From the Menu Bar, select Edit>Preferences.
Double click Appearance and select Fonts.
On the right panel set the font sizes. Minimum font size can also be set.

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Safari

From the Safari menu, select Preferences.
Click Appearance.
To change the standard font or fixed-width font used in pages, click the appropriate Select button.
Change the font size using the slider bar.

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Opera

Opera users should check out the instructions in the Windows, Mac or Linux sections of the BBC's My Web My Way website (see external links section below).

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Further help

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) website (see external links section below) includes more detailed advice, including screenshots, of how to change font size, as well as layout and style of pages.

My Web My Way is the BBC's comprehensive guide to making the web easier to use. The website explains the many ways you can change your browser, computer, keyboard and mouse settings to make the web more accessible for you. The links below offer comprehensive advice to Windows, Mac and Linux users on how to: