Zoom in Firefox 3

Sat, 31 May 2008

Firefox is my default browser for several reasons, but the number one is AdBlock. Yes,  other browsers have some sort of ad blocking, either built in or as a plug-in, but nothing comes even close to AdBlock on Firefox. Period.

Another function I use a lot is text zoom. When I’m using my MacBook Pro, there are quite a few websites with fonts so small that I sometimes find it a bit challenging to read past the first paragraph. This where the Command-+  (hold Command and press the plus sign) keyboard shortcut comes to the rescue. The font increases and becomes easier to read. I can repeat it number of times and the font gets bigger and bigger.

I like this a lot, but there is a problem. If you go too far with the font size, the pages become very distorted and get out of shape really badly. This is what it looks like before increasing the font size in FF2,

ff2_before.jpg

…but once you increase the size twice, this is what you get:

ff2_after.jpg

(Please ignore the rugby player image, I did a screenshot right in the middle of the flash transition)

Thankfully,  Firefox 3 (or at least the beta 5) addresses this nicely. The Command -+ shortcut actually zooms the content of the browser window, including images, cells, positioning, well - everything that’s in there. The result is the larger presenation of a web page with a perfectly preserved layout.

Here is the same page in Firefox 3 before zooming:

ff3_before.jpg

…and after zooming.

ff3_after.jpg

Now imagine this; you load the page that is 750 pixel wide and you’re reading it on 24″ iMac at 1920×1200 resolution. The font size is 11 px.  A few command-pluses and you get the page zoomed to the entire width of your big iMac screen and you can read it with ease from across the room, if needed.

If you’d like to increase only the font size, you can still do it via Firefox View menu:

menu.jpg

Stumble it!

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Category Posted in Software

4 Responses to “Zoom in Firefox 3”

  1. Bender said: Tue, 1 July 2008 at 14:04

    I still use the ctrl and 2 fingers on my MBP pad to zoom in & out :)

  2. BrianB said: Sat, 5 July 2008 at 18:47

    How do you go back to original?

  3. Marco Diaz said: Thu, 10 July 2008 at 02:51

    Opera has a very cool zoom feature that i think is better that “Safari” or “Firefox”

    Opera will zoom the whole page without distording anything. In fact, the font wont look pixalated at all.

    The only thing that might look a bit pixalet are the images but, besides that, Opera’s zoom feature looks great.

    You might want to check some of the features that Opera offers (Speed Dial, Customizations, Mail on Browser, etc) So far, I think Operas has some features that no other browser offers.

  4. Fish said: Sun, 27 July 2008 at 00:30

    There’s a Safari version for adblock, really really close to the Firefox one, you shoukd try it.

    http://safariadblock.sourceforge.net/

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