font size and dpi scaling

[highstream]

I use Waterfox 18.01 and IE10 as backups for Opera (Win 8x64). They are often handy for printing and sites that browser sniff or are just poorly programmed. In addition, with a 24" 1920x1200 monitor, I have display dpi set to 115%. From what I've read on monitor forums, user-set enlargement is quite common on larger displays. In any case, just now I decided to try FF 22, since x64 is not all that important with browsers. However, I was disappointed to find, at least at the Yahoo home page, that everything was enlarged close to roughly 1.5-2 times the size of the other browsers, including WF (actually, much more with IE10, which displays relatively small). Since Yahoo's recent home page revisions already expanded the amount of space used wastefully IMO, I found FF's presentation further enlargement unacceptable. Checking View > Zoom to see if something was going on, I couldn't see anything, but the Zoom menu options seem so limited - just up and down - that I wasn't able to determine much. I ended up uninstalling FF for now.

I know browsers handle site pages as well as dpi scaling differently, but FF seemed far beyond the norm. Did I miss something?

[rais]

install NoSquint

[the-edmeister]

This Bug was fixed for Firefox 22 - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=844604

First item in the Release Notes for Firefox 22.0.
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/22.0/releasenotes/

Check the settings in Win 7 for "Adjust screen resolution".
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... or-smaller

A discussion of this was started back in March in the MozillaZine Builds fora, when it landed in the 22.0.a1 version.
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2678897

This particular posting might get you back to the way that was in Firefox 21 and earlier.
viewtopic.php?p=12736757#p12736757

In about:config = layout.css.devPixelsPerPx
The default setting is -1.0 = change it to 1.0 =without the minus, to revert to the former method of handling DPI.

[highstream]

Thanks. Seems I walked into the middle of an ongoing debate. I did install FF22, so it appears here that the "too small" bug was overcompensated for.

I changed the layout.css... setting as you suggested and it is definitely an improvement. However, in the following three screenshots of the left two-thirds of Yahoo's home page currently, note the differences in vertical coverage between Opera, IE10 and FF layouts. Granted, FF handles the top of the screen menu/toolbar area differently than the other two - something that makes FF much less appealing to me - but that hardly accounts for most of the difference.

http://tinypic.com/useralbum.php?ua=WPj ... ZuIg%3D%3D

P.S. I meant to add that the FF22 install puts the M/FF icon in the taskbar without asking, even on the custom install. All it asks about are the desktop and start menu. It's easy enough to unpin, but thankfully very few other programs act out of turn like that.

[the-edmeister]

If you would be using Firefox 22 as another "backup" browser, is it really that important to you?
Have you considered not showing the Menu bar in Firefox?



.

[highstream]

Thanks for your good suggestions. What's most important is getting more on the page while it still being easily readable for me. Playing with the layout.css setting, 0.9 looks pretty good. The menu bar is not real important for my purposes.

A few other things that I see as limiting about FF's functionality, the first two being very important:
- a larger assortment of icon choices for the Navigation Bar (Customize), e.g., print preview, open new tab ("open new windows in a new tab" doesn't seem to do that, or I don't understand it);
- the lack of a separate Tab Bar that can be placed on the bottom on the screen. It's hard to believe I'm alone in preferring open tabs be down there.
- user should be able to right click anywhere on the Navigation Bar and get a context menu that includes Customize, not just on active icons

[Gingerbread Man]

- a larger assortment of icon choices for the Navigation Bar (Customize), e.g., print preview

Print / Print Preview (Update) or any of the other similar add-ons.

open new tab

The New Tab button is on the tab bar, on the right of the last tab. You can move it down to the navigation toolbar if you prefer.

- the lack of a separate Tab Bar that can be placed on the bottom on the screen.

Tab Mix Plus.

- user should be able to right click anywhere on the Navigation Bar and get a context menu that includes Customize, not just on active icons

If you right-click the Back and Forward buttons or the address bar, then you get the relevant context menus: history items and text input operations. I for one don't want the Customize option crammed in there for no reason.
You can right-click pretty much anywhere else on the navigation bar to get the Customize menu option. It's also available in the context menu for the empty area of the tab bar, and in the View → Toolbars and Firefox button → Options menus.

[highstream]

Thanks for the detailed reply.
- I'd prefer PP be available to add directly, rather than as an add on and drop down. One of the things that's kept me with Opera is the ability to customize without needing add-ons/extensions for basic tasks.
- New Tab - got it, thanks
- As for the Nav Bar and Right-Click > Customize, I don't understand what you mean by "crammed." I don't see why the entire thing doesn't show customize, as it does in Opera for example, instead of just certain parts. Seems like a simple adjustment. But to each their browser quirks.

[Gingerbread Man]

You're welcome.

If you want to find out how to make Firefox suit your needs, you're in the right place. If you want to send comments or suggestions to Mozilla, open the Help menu and choose Submit Feedback.

As for Opera's set of built-in features, let's save that discussion for when version 15.0 is released. The mail client is gone and bookmarks are probably gone too. At the moment, every other feature is waiting in reimplementation limbo.

[highstream]

Yep, people are screaming about bookmarks and mail with 15, but I've always used external clients for those. Normally, I'm an active tester, but not until 15 makes it to alpha, i.e., a full functioning browser.