# fixing Arabic fonts



## metis

*Moderator note :*
*This thread was starting in the Arabic forum, but I thought I'd move it here, as it's not exactly a "linguistic" question.*

Is there another bigger dimension of the fonts? because it is hard to write even with n°3.
thanks in advance, Metis


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## cherine

> Is there another bigger dimension of the fonts? because it is hard to write even with n°3. thanks in advance, Metis


Some forer@s manage to grow the font, but I don't know how they do it  so I prefer using the Tahoma font, it's much clearer than the others.


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## linguist786

cherine said:
			
		

> Some forer@s manage to grow the font, but I don't know how they do it  so I prefer using the Tahoma font, it's much clearer than the others.


Simple:

you put: [size=5 ] (insert text here) [/size]

but obviously without the space between the "5" and the "]". (Obviously the bigger you want it, the bigger the number)

*tests* = كيف حالكم يا اخوة واخوات؟ 

Voilà


Moe


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## cherine

Thanks for the tip.


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## linguist786

cherine said:
			
		

> Thanks for the tip.


No problem


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## Whodunit

ANd if you want the vowels to appear clearly (so that you can confuse ـيَـ and ـتِـ, you should use the font "Traditional Arabic":

*ـيَـ* and *ـتِـ*


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## metis

linguist786 said:
			
		

> Simple:
> 
> you put: [size=5 ] (insert text here) [/size]
> 
> but obviously without the space between the "5" and the "]". (Obviously the bigger you want it, the bigger the number)


I wrote: aaaaaaa
but there was no difference. the same with:  (aaaaaa)  .  Where is the mistake? I cannot understan how it works. On the other hand I tried the tahoma font and it is just a bit bigger.  giulio


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## metis

linguist786 said:
			
		

> Simple:
> 
> you put: [size=5 ] (insert text here) [/size]
> 
> but obviously without the space between the "5" and the "]". (Obviously the bigger you want it, the bigger the number)
> 
> *tests* = كيف حالكم يا اخوة واخوات؟
> 
> Voilà
> 
> 
> Moe


sorry, I am so stupid!  it works! definetely! but you can see the difference only when you have posted it, that's why I was sure it did not work. but how you can check if you have written it correctly? giulio


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## cherine

You can always "preview post" before you click Send


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## Jana337

metis said:
			
		

> sorry, I am so stupid!  it works! definetely! but you can see the difference only when you have posted it, that's why I was sure it did not work. but how you can check if you have written it correctly? giulio


Metis, if the default font is too small for you, just change the setings in your browser (it only works for the current session, so you do not need to change it back when you are done with Arabic; it is enough to close the window): View - Text Size - Larger or Largest.

If you had a decent browser, you could use Ctrl + instead. 

Jana


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## Whodunit

Jana337 said:
			
		

> Metis, if the default font is too small for you, just change the setings in your browser (it only works for the current session, so you do not need to change it back when you are done with Arabic; it is enough to close the window): View - Text Size - Larger or Largest.
> 
> If you had a decent browser, you could use Ctrl + instead.
> 
> Jana


 
Yes, I use CTRL + scroll wheel (on my mouse) to get the font larger and smaller. It works for non-Latin scripts and everyone's signatures in this forum.

By the way, if you switch the Editor Mode in the upper right corner of your reply window (next to the backward-forward arrows above the speech balloon to "quote"), you will be able to change the font size and if you click it once more, you will come back to the enhanced mode (WYSIWYG) and see your modifications.


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## avok

Hi to you all,

Why is it that the letters in the Arabic forum are so big or even gigantic??? 
It looks like for little kids. Big letters so, they can read'em better.


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## cherine

There was an older thread about this same question, but a quick answer: The Arabic forum's default is set to bigger font because the smaller is almost unreadable. When people write in smal font, like this for example, it's really hard to read their text.
Of course the default is meant for Arabic letters, but it also affects Latin characters as well, and usually people don't bother much about putting their text into smaller a font when they switch between the two languages


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## avok

Gracias, cherine.


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## Outsider

The _Latin_ letters are big, but the Arabic letters look small.


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## cherine

avok said:


> Gracias, cherine.


De nada, Avok.


Outsider said:


> The _Latin_ letters are big, but the Arabic letters look small.


The default font size in the Arabic forum is (3), which is big for the Latin (English, French...) letters, and ok for the Arabic ones.


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## Jampuppy

Jana337 said:


> Metis, if the default font is too small for you, just change the setings in your browser (it only works for the current session, so you do not need to change it back when you are done with Arabic; it is enough to close the window): View - Text Size - Larger or Largest.
> 
> If you had a decent browser, you could use Ctrl + instead.
> 
> Jana


 
These methods had no impact for me. I have to set the magnification at 150% in order to make out the Arabic words, even with the default font size set to 3. I'd love it if there were some way to put the computer's default view of Arabic fonts at a level that's legible for the user! Any geeks here who know of a way of doing that?


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## swift

I pay a visit to the Arabic forum once a week, and I have never had any problems to make out the Arabic letters. I'm a Firefox user, by the way, and the default display of that forum is always bigger than in other forums, but it only makes the Roman characters look bigger . If zooming in didn't work for you, then maybe you have to check the display settings in your operating system Control Panel.


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## Jampuppy

Here is a sample of the difference between the fonts for me: *ilqawaalib القوالب*
If it shows up the same for everyone else, there is a surprising disparity between the clarity provided for the transcription and that of the Arabic one. 

I've found a bit of improvement this way, though:  I chose a different font for my default IE Arabic font by following this path in IE: Tools>Internet Options>Tools>General>Fonts and scrolled through the font choices till I found the clearest rendition (MudirMT for me), but I didn't see how to change the size of the font. I'm not sure it's possible, but I haven't given up. I've also overridden websites' fonts by following this path in IE: Tools>Internet Options>General>Accessibility and selected 'Ignore font styles specified on webpages' and 'Ignore font sizes specified on webpages'.


Thanks Swift. If by zooming, you mean magnification, that is indeed what does (sort of) work, but I'd rather not enlarge everything, just the Arabic. I will search online for solutions and post anything that is relevant (without links, of course) 

Awaiting geeks' replies. 

I use XP, btw. Thank you!


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