Firefox display changed, zoomed in on websites
My Firefox on a windows 7 HP laptop updated today (June 25th) and the zoom adjusted, changing the font size, as well as icons and zoomed in on websites. I noticed in the list of changes for the program it says "improved rendering on high-res displays" is this the problem and is there anyway I can disable this? I was quite happy with the resolution before, and find this tacky and annoying...
Ŋuɖoɖo si wotia
This post has been revised to include information about an add-on. A copy of the original post appears below the horizontal line.
Firefox now adjusts the page zoom level according to your Windows settings, to better support high DPI displays. For example, if Windows is set to 125% font size (120dpi), the content area will be zoomed by 25% compared with Firefox 21 and earlier.
The straightest line back toward the earlier style of display is the following two step approach:
Step 1: Install the Theme Font & Size Changer extension. Why? Because turning off the scaling affects the chrome area (menus, toolbars, and tabs) as well as the content.
After restarting Firefox, click the new "A" icon at the right end of the navigation toolbar and change the font size from Normal to 15.
Step 2: Change your global scaling in the about:config preferences editor.
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(2) In the filter box, type or paste pix and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click layout.css.devPixelsPerPx and change its value to 1.0 for Firefox 21-sized fonts in the content area.
This should take effect immediately without another restart.
Original Post
Firefox now tries to adjust the zoom level according to your Windows settings, as well as better supporting high DPI displays. It's not going to be to everyone's liking.
I still have Fx21 on this computer so I can't test it myself, but could you check the following setting and try adjusting it:
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(2) In the filter box, type or paste pix and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click layout.css.devPixelsPerPx and change its value to 1.0 to restore the appearance from earlier versions of Firefox for smaller fonts, or a larger ratio for larger fonts. For example, 1.25 corresponds to 125% font size in Windows display settings.
Does that help?
More info in this thread: How do I set the default font size to a lower value?
Xle ŋuɖoɖo sia le goya me 👍 25All Replies (20)
I have fooled about for over an hour trying all the tinker fixes for this V 22 problem. This is unacceptable. I have now reinstalled V 21. It seems to have resolved most of the problems but I expect when I wake up tomorrow the auto upgrade will have put me back to V22. I would really like to find the clicky that does not auto update, and I can read up on the flaws currently crippling the latest offering, and decide to wait.
This needs to be fixed properly, not with pages upon pages of tinkering of other settings. Please.
PS: Just saw V22 download again as I am on the update channel. It's waiting for me to close Firefox so we can start this all over again. I really would like to defer this V22 until this issue is fixed.
JohnYuristy trɔe
The solution in the first post (the one with the add-on) worked for me, so thankfully, my sanity and eyes are still intact. However, I wish it was not necessary to have to do that in the first place.
I'm sure Mozilla had their reasons for including this change in their update, but I hope that soon, they only include this as an option that can be toggled on and off with a checkbox or something similar. I'm sure there are people out there who love this part of the update, but I'm also pretty sure that most Firefox users do not like this part at all; a checkbox would be a nice compromise.
That's what I also suggested mistshine.
While I am grateful for the less than industrial approach of Mozilla, I think the frantic updating, and the rush to be continually with it, is to the detriment. I prefer lagging technology, not cutting edge. Sober second thought, so to speak. I still have some aberration, some text and page perturbations, but I can live with a V21 that was just fine yesterday. I have disabled the auto update (TOOLS - OPTIONS- ADVANCED) and I believe i am remaining on V 21. Until the nerds find a good solution to this.
jscher2000, I'm not going to start uploading images of specific websites, as it's unnecessary. You have already had the problem described to you by many people, which is that Firefox 22 has changed all the scales and sizes and proportions when compared to the last few years of Firefox.
Firefox is fully aware that something's been changed, as you've already told many people it was deliberate. If you know what you have changed, then you already know how to change it back - or at least to give users the CHOICE of changing it back, as I presume there may be some people who like the new confusion making their eyes sore.
So you really don't need screenshots, do you? And you don't need me to try fiddling with lots of wasteful add-ons and configuration settings. I'm not a programmer, I don't wish to waste hours trying to replicate something that worked perfectly well before.
Did Firefox actually have lots of users complaining that previous editions were missing an option to make all webpages look out of scale with each other?
Changing settings which make the product worse for users then refusing to admit it's worse - that's what Microsoft Windows does. I honestly never thought Firefox would want to copy Windows.
I await an update to fix this problem.
Hi TonyAmsterdam, you wrote:
If you zoom out with the new firefox the site's background remains the same 125%. So you can never see the site like it's made.
Could you give me the URL of a site that does this -- i.e., where zoom does not work on both the page content and the background image(s)?
Hi bewley,
The only page I've seen that does not scale correctly is the Facebook home page (logged out) with JavaScript enabled. By "not scale correctly" I mean that zoom (Ctrl+ and Ctrl-) -- followed by a reload (Ctrl+r or Ctrl+Shift+r) -- does not work consistently for all elements in the page: some are bizarrely large and the layout breaks. I don't know what their scripts do to resize the different elements in an inconsistent manner.
If you are aware of other sites that are similarly broken in Firefox 22, I'd like the URL. I don't need a screenshot to test this unless the page requires an account.
As for the main issue that some users do not want the content area zoomed even though they use a high DPI setting in Windows, or don't want it zoomed in the same proportion, I think that is well understood, as are the workarounds presently available.
I made lots of sites based on Wordpress and they all act the same in the new firefox: the content zooms in or out and the background remains the same 125%. I'll give you one URL: http://www.djdiva.nl/
Hi Jefferson, Don't get me wrong: I appreciate all the time and effort you put into this, also the great work the people from Mozilla always have put into Firefox. It just makes me mad that my favourite browser is f*cking up my website design and my browser experience. I just checked your website and it shows the same problem with zooming: your background remains the same, only the content scales. Compare it with zooming in IE10: there the whole site including background image scales: more respect for the website design. I object to your statement that some users object to this new firefox zooming: this thread illustrates that all serious users object to this new default and Mozilla should admit it made a mistake and should make an update to make firefox the best browser again.
Hi TonyAmsterdam, when I use Ctrl+ and Ctrl- I get the background images scaling proportionately (both on your site and mine). I'm not sure why you are seeing a different behavior.
Could you check for any non-default settings related to zoom in about:config (i.e., filter using the word zoom)?
Hi Jefferson, You're right: browser.zoom.full was turned off. Thank you! Strange because I didn't change the settings. Now at least the zoom is working correctly. If Mozilla would change the default zoom settings to 100% again I will be totally happy!
Please put this back. As a developer, now I have to worry about whether my client is viewing in firefox or chrome or safari or ie because elements that should fit at certain screen resolutions don't in firefox. What a huge hassle! I don't want people to have to configure their browser to see how the site was designed. that should not be necessary.
Please Please Please, reverse this mistake.
We need cross-browser compatibility and standards. This is a move away from the crowd and as such will be received as unwelcome.
I dearly want each and every browser to show a page the same way - exactly. Surely we all do??!
Chrome did this correctly...one switch and it's enabled or disabled: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57593030-93/chrome-gets-high-resolution-screen-support-on-windows-too/
That's what we need here. No plug-ins. No jacking with scaling parameters in one-tenth increments. One switch and it's back to normal.
Hi davidharpe, you wrote:
Chrome did this correctly...one switch and it's enabled or disabled... One switch and it's back to normal.
Do you mean the command-line switch? Google seems to love those, but for the average person, editing the command-line switches for your program shortcut or in your system's default application settings doesn't seem very convenient.
So, jscher2000, having my browser deformed so that nothing is the size I want it to be, and being repeatedly told by you that I can fiddle about with a wide variety of add-ons and rewriting values on admin:config or whatever it's called, yet still being unable to make Firefox 22 vaguely resemble the simple views of Firefox 21 (which I really miss now) - you think THAT is convenient? Honestly? Are you really not aware of how ridiculous that sounds?
Hmmm, let's see... editing one command-line switch which works, or hours of trial and error with pointless suggestions from you which don't work? I know which one I'd prefer right now.
Well, I did attempt some of those about:config pokes, and I fiddled with that a bit, as well as the and then I gave up and found a copy of V21, installed it, and blocked the auto upgrade.
As I said, I will continue with 21 until this issue resolves. Problem is, I must now have some values set wrong somewhere, because I still get discrepancy on some pages, mostly in font sizes now. I did mess with the Firefox font settings along the way also, and I'm not sure what they were originally. I am not a webpage developer, and I don't want to be. I hope those who are might someday soon figure this out. 21 it is.
Hi bewley, I didn't say I liked having to use workarounds.
Regarding my suggestions being "pointless": I've only seen one webpage that behaves badly with the available workarounds (Facebook home page before you log in.) I'm sorry that you didn't find my suggestions useful, but you have declined to show me a screen shot or URL of the pages that give you trouble, or list your specific choices (what DPI setting? what extension settings?), so there's no way for me to provide you with less "pointless" assistance.
Hi JohnYuristy, if you adjusted the zoom on some sites while using Firefox 22 (for example, using Ctrl+ or Ctrl-), those settings may have carried over to Firefox 21.
You can reset the zoom level by pressing Ctrl+0 (that's a zero).
If you installed Default FullZoom Level or NoSquint, then those may require some adjustment or you might not need them at this point.
@jscher2000 I had the same experience as others. Yahoo news page, GMail, Google+, and Feedly all had issues. Spent two hours trying to make them look right with every available fix. None of the "fixes" - dpi configs, plug-ins, -1 here, 1 there, no permutation made them look as before. Some got closer than others, but none fixed the issues on all of the pages mentioned above.
Maybe you have mystical powers or maybe your tolerance for the annoyances is lower, but there are dozens of threads and multiple individuals with high skill levels who are having this same problem. Continuing to say it's a problem with what we're doing is just kinda dumb. The next thing you know you'll be telling us we're holding our phones wrong.
Firefox 21 is the only real fix at this point....that or Chrome where one setting disables the Hidpi support.
Dear jscher2000, normal people who live in the real world don't know what a DPI setting is. Or an extension setting. And I shouldn't have to learn what they are just to look at my browser.
As JohnYuristy so politely puts it: "I am not a webpage developer, and I don't want to be. I hope those who are might someday soon figure this out."
I fail to understand why you need a screenshot to tell you that something is different when Firefox should already know what is different BECAUSE FIREFOX MADE IT DIFFERENT.
But as you can't seem to answer any other way, here's a screenshot of Hotmail's homepage. - ON the left, Internet Explorer with everything the size I want it - the same as Firefox has been for many years until you messed with it. - ON the right, Firefox 22, with normal size text on most of the page, but tiny tiny text on the 'sign in' section.
And I will say right now that I am not interested in a 'solution' that tries to fix just this one page. I am not going to provide a picture of every single webpage that doesn't appear the same, and laboriously work my way through them. I have a normal life to lead which shouldn't involve sitting in front of a computer fiddling around with values and DPIs and configs.
All I ask is for Firefox to look the same as it has for the last 5 years. Is that really so difficult to understand? I don't feel this should be such a tricky concept that I'm having to get into an argument with you.
bewley trɔe