How to Change Font Size on Safari

If you are having problems reading text as it appears on certain Web pages inside your browser, you may want to change the font size to something that is larger and easier to read. Macintosh users that run the Safari Web browser can alter their browser preferences to change the font size of the text that is displayed on Web pages. There are two ways in which you can change the font size within Safari: one that changes the font size only for the page you are viewing at the moment, and another that allows you to set the font size for all of the pages you view.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Safari Web browser
• Internet access
• Macintosh computer running OS X

Change the Font Size of the Current Web Page

1. Open up the Safari Web browser on your desktop.

2. Hold down the command key on your keyboard. On Macintosh computers, the command key is indicated by an Apple or a cloverleaf symbol.

3. Press the '+' key to increase the font size or the '-' key to decrease the font size. Do this while still holding down the command key.

4. Stop when you've reached a font size that you can read easily.

Change the Font Size of All Web Pages

5. Open up the Safari Web browser on your desktop.

6. Click on the 'Safari' heading and choose 'Preferences' from the pull down menu.

7. Click on the heading labeled 'Appearance.'

8. Choose the 'Select' button to the right of the option 'Standard Font.'

9. Choose the font size you want by clicking on the correct number in the 'Sizes' column.

10. Choose the 'Select' button to the right of the option 'Fixed-width font' and adjust the font size in the same manner.

11. Close the 'Fonts' window and begin browsing with the adjusted font size.

Tips & Warnings

• On Macintosh keyboards, the '+' and '-' keys are located at the end of the numbers row, right before the 'Delete' button.
• When choosing your font size, lower numbers correspond to smaller font sizes.
• While in the 'Appearances' section of the 'Preferences' menu, you can also change the type of font that is used.
• If you don't already have Safari, download it free on Apple's Web site (see Resources below).
• Apple's online Support Page is a great resource for getting helpful tips on Safari (see Resources below).
• For added security, Safari also offers 128-bit encryption when accessing secure Web sites.
• Safari 2.0 will only work properly on computers running OS 10.4.
• Making the font size too large can decrease the amount of information that can be seen on each page, causing the viewer to have to scroll down to see the rest of the content.
• The steps in this guide were written for Safari 2.0 and may not be applicable to earlier versions.