Firefox Android - font size setting doesn't work when viewport width <= screen width
Update 20.01.2013 - more info in my post below: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/983115#answer-524375
Firefox 26.0.1
Nexus 7 2013, updated to 4.4.2
I've tried changing font size from Medium to Large, because Medium is too small for me. Font size setting does nothing. Things I've tried:
- reloading the page,
- opening it again in a new tab,
- reinstalling Firefox without any extensions,
- rebooting the tablet.
I've got an older tablet on 4.1.2, same Firefox version - changing size works fine after reloading the page.
Modified by trisenk
All Replies (6)
The font size setting only applies to "desktop" (non-mobile) websites. For example cnn.com articles would be larger but Wikipedia which provides a mobile site would not change size.
Yes, I know that. I'm checking it on desktop sites. Fonts on cnn.com do not change size. Same with ArsTechnica etc. I've checked "request desktop site" even though it wasn't needed.
I've attached a screenshot of ArsTechnica.
The text may seem OK but in reality it's really small on a 7" screen. So not only this setting does not work, but the default value is too small.
Like I said above, I have an older tablet - 7" 1024x600 screen, Android 4.1.2. Font size setting works fine on it.
Modified by trisenk
Our heuristics for determining font-size really bad. You'll see changes take affect on site's like DrudgeReport's links, but I don't know why they don't take affect on articles on ArsTechnica and such.
Ars sets a meta vewport. As I recall that will short circuit the font inflation code.
This doesn't explain why the exact same version of Firefox on my other tablet scales text on arstechnica.com just fine.
I've checked a few more sites, and for example dailytech.com works the same on both my tablets - text changes size.
Modified by trisenk
Tried modyfying ArsTechnica page to see what's the cause of this, and it's indeed the viewport tag.
<meta name="viewport" content="width=1020">
If I change its value to 1201 or more, the font size setting starts working. At 1200 or less - it doesn't work. Horizontal resolution of my Nexus is 1200, so it seems that there's some mystery comparison between viewport width and screen width that bungles up font scaling. This would also explain why fonts scale on my older tablet with 600px width.
It wouldn't be that bad if fonts would stay at "normal" setting, but unfortunately they reset to "smallest".
Without the viewport font scaling also works fine.
Will this issue be resolved in some foreseeable future? In the meantime, is there any extension or setting in about:config that would allow me to modify page's source to get rid of the viewport tag, or ignore it?
Modified by trisenk