Chris Pirillo » font

How Do You Enlarge Web Site Fonts for Printing?

Chris — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:19:41 +0000

How Do You Enlarge Web Site Fonts for Printing? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Yes, I’m addicted to fonts. I’ve admitted it for years. I like looking at cool fonts, and enjoy finding new ones. Someone from the PCPitStop community recently asked how he can enlarge fonts on a web page, to make it easier for him to read. You don’t need a new printer, don’t worry! The answer lies within your browser itself!

My recommendation for a browser is Firefox, Safari or even Chrome. No matter what browser you’re using, you should be able to change the font sizes on the page before you read it or even print it. You can check the associated help file in order to learn how to change these settings.

In Firefox, you can change your font sizes by simply holding down your CTRL button, and clicking the + button/sign as many times as needed to increase your font size on the page.
In Internet Explorer, click on View, and then hover your mouse over Text Size. Choose large or larger in order to increase the font to something you can easily read.
If you use Opera, you can click on View and then hover the mouse over Zoom at the bottom of the View menu. From there, you can increase the percentage to make the text manageable for your needs.
With Safari, you will again go to the View menu. Once there, click on “Make Text Larger”, and adjust the percentages accordingly.

Hopefully this answers the question properly. Thankfully, all browsers have ways that you can easily change your settings on everything from font size to the colors that display… in order to maximize the browsing experience for everyone. Don’t let bad eyesight keep you from enjoying everything the web has to offer!

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How to Visualize CSS Font Properties

Chris — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:43:38 +0000

How to Visualize CSS Font Properties is a post from Chris Pirillo

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What is your favorite font of all time? If you say Comic Sans, I’m going to jump through the camera. I admit I used to use Comic Sans back in the day when I started doing newsletters. If you’ve ever had the need to create a web page and needed to change the way the font looked… you likely opened a CSS editor. And then – you were probably lost, since it’s not easy. There’s a tool out there, however, that will easily help you tweak any font you can find!

Typetester is an online application for comparison of the fonts for the screen. Its primary role is to make web designer’s life easier. As the new fonts are bundled into operating systems, the list of the common fonts will be updated. The code structure is XHTML, styled with CSS and driven by JavaScript. Typetester won’t work for you unless you have JavaScript enabled.

Choose your type face from the list, including all that are commonly installed on your computer. Change the color, background, size, tracking and more. There are three columns of text, and you can change each column individually of the others. This way, you can just keep messing with things and tweaking them until you are completely happy with the way your font looks!

If you’ve ever wanted to change your font settings, and know nothing about CSS – this is the way to go. It’s very easy to use, and there’s nothing to install. You’ll learn about the elements inside of CSS, and you’ll get an idea of how things work!

Go ahead – you know you want to play around with your fonts!

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How to Create your own TrueType Font for Free

Chris — Sat, 17 May 2008 02:24:42 +0000

How to Create your own TrueType Font for Free is a post from Chris Pirillo

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If you’re like me, you enjoy creating new fonts, and downloading neat ones you find on the Web. I used to be very addicted to them. I don’t download them half as much as I used to. I even remember way back in the day when I used to create fonts for DOS. I even created the FigLet Font. Well, now you can create your own cool fonts… for free!

If you head over to FontStruct, you can create, download and share your own fonts. FontStruct is a free font-building tool brought to you by the world’s leading retailer of digital type, FontShop. FontStruct lets you quickly and easily create fonts constructed out of geometrical shapes, which are arranged in a grid pattern, like tiles or bricks. Once you’re done building, FontStruct generates high-quality TrueType fonts, ready to use in any Mac or Windows application. You can keep your creations to yourself, or share your “FontStructions”. Explore the Gallery of fonts made by other FontStruct users and download them or even copy them and make your own variations.

Go ahead! Make your own cool fonts, and send us a link to check them out. We’re interested in taking a look at what you come up with! My email address is chris@pirillo.com or you can leave a follow-up comment to this post here on the blog.

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Fix Windows Vista’s Fonts!

Chris — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 08:45:23 +0000

Fix Windows Vista’s Fonts! is a post from Chris Pirillo

I’ve been labeled a nitipicker for seeing skipped details that few others seem to see on the surface of an application’s user interface. Guilty as charged! Download this simple registry patch, but please read this entire post before applying it?

I’m not happy that Microsoft has added yet another shell font to the mix with Windows Vista: Segoe UI. On its own, Segoe UI is an awesome font – but when it’s slapped up against Tahoma, MS Sans Serif, Microsoft Sans Serif, and/or Arial – it’s no longer a clean user experience. In fact, Vista is downright messy when it comes to shell fonts – with some aliased faces reaching back to the days of Windows 3.11!

These blatant font oversights were shoved onto the backburner for the sake of (a) 100% backwards compatibility and (b) time. However, that didn’t stop me from diving into REGEDIT and setting things straight. The good news? I believe I’ve figured out how to make everything inside of Windows Vista stick to Segoe UI. It’s a subtle, yet radical, transformation.

There are benefits and drawbacks that come with my font tweaks. The biggest benefit is that most (if not all) of your application fonts will finally be in the same font family. The drawbacks happen to be a matter of perspective.

Text in size-restricted config dialogs may appear tight or truncated, but you will never see Arial, Times New Roman, Microsoft Sans Serif, MS Serif, MS Sans Serif, or Tahoma font faces ever again. I can’t imagine this being a tremendous problem for most people – myself included.

I’ve killed most of the aliased fonts that will ship in Windows Vista – there’s virtually no other (or easier) way to do it other than through this registry patch. Software installers finally conform to a single Segoe UI typeset, Google Earth finally looks clean, and .NET apps finally don’t look any different than other apps on the system – and Web sites that call on Arial (like Google.com) look amazing after this tweak, too. I posted a few before and after screen shots to Flickr.

If you bother to look at the .REG file I’ve compiled, you’ll see that the tweaks are relatively straighforward. I’m essentially redirecting font rendering from fonts I don’t want (Arial, Tahoma, MS Sans Serif, etc.) to a font that I do want (Segoe UI). The essential key is in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows NT CurrentVersion FontSubstitutes.

I’m releasing this tweak in the hope that others will help me refine it. You should set a System Restore point if you’re feeling gunshy. I’ve applied them safely to my own system, and have bug squished and cross-checked compatibility with both Robert McLaws and Brandon LeBlanc. They were both quite helpful and suffered through countless reboots with me. If you find any other tweaks that should be added to the .REG file, let me know and I’ll incorporate them ASAP.

For further optimization, you might also set your icon font to 8pt (it’s 9pt by default). Right-click the desktop, choose Personalize, click the first “Windows Color and Appearance” option, click the “Open classic appearance properties for more color options” link near the bottom, then click the Advanced button on the “Appearance Settings” dialog, select the “Icon” item, then flip the Size field to “8.” Windows Vista: transparently convoluted!

While my font patch is harmless, I’m not responsible for anything that might happen to your system (or life) if you decide to apply it. I’m sure incompatibilities will spring up, but that’s when I’ll really need your troubleshooting assistance.

I’ll certainly be sharing this information with a few key Microsofties, though I do not expect them to officially incorporate my patch into future builds of Windows. If you don’t even care about the fonts on your screen, then why did you bother to read this far – and what have you got to lose by applying my patch? I simply couldn’t recommend running Windows Vista without it.

Moreover, to all the people who slapped me around for complaining about Vista’s font mayhem: at least I did something about it instead of rolling over and pretending we were past the point of no return. Feh. If only I could fix other visual hiccups – like Vista’s Task Manager, which has 16-color icons and doesn’t ToolTip truncated fields. Maybe SpeedUpMyPC will fix it eventually?

DOS Fonts

Chris — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:58:23 +0000

DOS Fonts is a post from Chris Pirillo

Yes, you can easily change your command line font – so long as you’re running in a full screen session. I used to do this all the time (when DOS ruled the Earth). I’m not talking about changing the font in Windows, mind you – anybody can do that. Here’s a set of “.COM” files I collected back in the day, including a free DOS font editor from PC Magazine. They’re completely safe to use.

Download these DOS fonts and extract them somewhere
Open a command line window [run CMD.EXE]
“CD” to the directory where you extracted the fonts
Key in “MODE CON: LINES=23″ [without quotes, tap ENTER]
Tap ALT+ENTER to go full screen
Key in “DIR” [without quotes, tap ENTER]
Key in “F#” [without quotes, "#" can be 1 through 44]

If these instructions make no sense to you, then you probably wouldn’t find this bit of digital nostalgia all that much fun anyway. I’ve been a font freak forever.

It’s totally geeky – but I’m not going to explain the reason or rhyme behind why I believe it’s still fun to do. The settings aren’t sticky, so everything goes back to normal when you EXIT the session. I created “F4,” by the way (very Beavis & Buttheadish). If you wanna create your own, I’ve included FONTEDIT.COM. Pimp it, yo!

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code CHRIS7, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.