First Time Visitors:  Configuring System Fonts

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Proper font settings will allow you to view web sites as they are meant to be viewed.  Though it is possible to set a web site to not allow changes in font settings, I opted to not incorporate such practice in the design of this site.  Some people have to compromise the aesthetics of a web site in order to read the text; the owner of this web site has opted to allow one to do so.  However, if you wonder why many sites do not seem quite right on your machine, just go through this tutorial on setting system fonts.  Keep in mind that you are changing fonts back to factory or MS Windows default setting.

First, lets show examples of what web sites should look like.  Look at the screen shots from the table below.

One will notice that the more use of tables and cells, the more the site is affected by changes in font settings.  This site and Yahoo! are hard hit due to heavy use of tables.  Hagen Hosting, by less use of tables has less dramatic affects.  On this site, fonts will stretch vertically so the site does not go off the screen as it does on Yahoo!.  Font settings really boils down to personal preference and aesthetics.  

The first thing to do is check your system's font size.  The default is 96 dpi.  Go to your desktop and right mouse click.  Select "Properties" to pull up the display properties.  Click on the "Settings" tab.  Then, click "Advanced...".  Now you should have the tab selection box.  Click on the "General" tab if not already there.  The settings should be "Small Fonts", "Normal size (96 dpi).  If changes are being made, it will be necessary to reboot the computer before continuing. 

It's now time to set your browser font settings.  First, go to the font selector in the IE tool bar and make sure the font is set to medium.  If this option does not appear in the tool bar, right mouse click on the tool bar and select customize.  Then, in the menu options, select "Tools" and click on internet options.  Click on the fonts button.  The language script should be set to "Latin based".  Web page font needs to be set to "Times New Roman".  And, the plain text font should be "Courier New".  Click "Ok".  Then click "Ok" again.  

Congratulations!  You have successfully reset your system fonts!  If fonts still does not appear right, try rebooting your system again.  If your fonts still does not look right, you will need to reload your original fonts from your Windows CD-ROM.  It's possible for font files to become corrupted.  If so, you should consider getting technical assistence.