How to Determine Font Size

By Editorial Team

Updated April 02, 2020

Cheerful black man using laptop.
i Ridofranz/iStock/GettyImages

The size of a font refers to just that -- how big or small the text you are seeing on screen is measuring. A standard font size used in most computer applications is "12 point." However, the size varies depending on the document being viewed and who originally created it. If you have a document and want to determine the its font size, you need only use a word processor program to learn this.

Highlight a block of text. This can be from a webpage, an email or even a word processing document.

i S.H.

Right-click anywhere inside the highlighted block of text.

i S.H.

Click "Copy."

i S.H.

Open a word processing utility, like Microsoft Word or Microsoft Works, on your computer.

i S.H.

Paste the text that you've copied into the blank document, while maintaining the formatting. The formatting of the text is the font size and type, which is of importance to this process. For example, if you're using Microsoft Office 2007 you have to click on the "Home" tab. Then, select the arrow beneath the "Paste" button and click "Paste Special." Select the "HTML Format" menu option and click "OK." The copied text will be pasted into the document with the proper formatting.

If you're using Microsoft Word 1997-2003, you need to click on the arrow next to the "Paste" button in the toolbar and select "Keep Source Formatting" before pasting the text into the document.

i S.H.

Highlight a block of text. This can be from a webpage, an email or even a word processing document. Look on the toolbar at the top of the word processing utility for the "Font Size" drop-down list. The number that is currently being displayed on the button is the font size of the selected block of text on screen.

i S.H.

Tips

Even when you paste text from the web with the proper formatting into a blank word processing document, it may appear to look slightly differently than it does on the original source page. This is because it is not being viewed in a web browser anymore, but rather in a word processing computer program. However, both the font type readings and the font size readings will be accurate.

×