I've just installed Firefox 23 and found out that the good people at Mozilla have made a decision with terrible consequences for all web designers.

They have decided to adapt the users choice of fontsize in Windows to the browser by scaling the entire webpage incl. bitmap images up or down.

The reason why this means severe damages to our work is that Windows default font-size is set to 125 % resulting in entire webpages are blown up to 125% leaving all standard 72 dpi images extremely blury.

There's no way to change this with CSS. body{font-size: 100%} will not fix this it can only be changed by the users.

So unless you are only working with 4x size retina images and SVG only, every site you have ever designed will now look like sh.. to all the millions of Windows/Firefox users. This in my opinion very disrespectfull toward all webdesigners who spend hours creating logos and graphics and it does not at all improve the user experience.

I will encourage you all to share your feelings on this with Mozilla.

Edited September 3, 201313 yr by Nillervision

I've been running Firefox 23 for a while and hadn't noticed any difference.

 

Are you talking about Windows display preferences? Or browser preferences?

I'm talking about windows display settings. A lot of users would never change them. I dont know why windows have chosen 125% as default (maybe its only on high res monitors) But every other browser lets you override it with css.

here's a couple of threads from the mozilla support forum

https://support.mozilla.org/da/questions/962945

https://support.mozilla.org/da/questions/962979

https://support.mozilla.org/da/questions/963544

And in case you are wondering...

 

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1">
 

 

will not override the scaling either.

I haven't noticed any difference either, even with responsive design using

 

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1">

 

My monitor is 1366*768 18.5" so may not be as large as your's. Does it make any difference if you make the window smaller?

 

Mozilla have also removed the Javascript toggle which I used a lot, so I had to install the noscript add-on, which is fine, but has to be set for every webpage I visit, rather than a global setting on or off.

I'm using Win 8 (fresh install) at a 1680x1050 resolution. The fonts are as default set to 125% .When i open a newly installed version of firefox with no special addons every page visited is scaled to 125%. By pressing ctrl+minus you can scale it to about the right size. But when you press ctrl+0 you will get a 125% zoom on all the content in the webpage. You can change firefox' behaviour in about:config. But how many users will do that?

EDIT: No change in the scale when the window is resized

Edited September 3, 201313 yr by Nillervision

The release notes for FF22 states that this new "improvement" only aplys to high res displays. So check your designs on big screens in the future. Or just use larger image resolutions (dpi)

Windows: Firefox now follows display scaling options to render text larger on high-res displays

I see what you are getting at now - ouch!

I see what you are getting at now - ouch!

Yes my words exactly. And as this only happens on big screens (and on Windows) lots of designers on their macbooks will never notice before its to late (when the clients wants refunds)

So I now have to change all my images on all my websites as they are all 72 dpi?? That's a long job.

 

I don't think I've got a large resolution screen either, so I'll have to check what is the largest resolution my monitor will do, or buy a new one.

So I now have to change all my images on all my websites as they are all 72 dpi?? That's a long job.

 

I don't think I've got a large resolution screen either, so I'll have to check what is the largest resolution my monitor will do, or buy a new one.

No way. Mozilla Should not get away with this. Ater years IE finally seams to get in line the conventions, and then Firefox pulls something like this.The only solution is to try and make Mozilla roll this big mistake back. Meanwhile you can take comfort in the fact that it's not just your designs but 90% of all websites that will look blurry. Anyone who reads this and understand the consequences PLEASE contact Mozilla and tell them how wrong they are. (EDIT: In the most polite way of course)

Edited September 4, 201313 yr by Nillervision

No way. Mozilla Should not get away with this. Ater years IE finally seams to get in line the conventions, and then Firefox pulls something like this.The only solution is to try and make Mozilla roll this big mistake back. Meanwhile you can take comfort in the fact that it's not just your designs but 90% of all websites that will look blurry. Anyone who reads this and understand the consequences PLEASE contact Mozilla and tell them how wrong they are.

I agree something that effects websites this much should not have been thrown in as a default, maybe a accessibility option but not default

maybe this needs a petition to encourage Mozilla to revert back?

maybe this needs a petition to encourage Mozilla to revert back?

Good idea. What the best way to do that? I mean where should we post it?

 

To all you mac users and people with lower screen resolutions here's a screen print so you can see exatcly what firefox will do to your images.

Make sure you see the image in actual size you might need to right-click and open the image.

I'll just add this screen print from windows 8 as documentation. As you can see the default fontsize is 125% if you leave the settings unchanged Firefox will zoom all webpages to 125% on large resolution screens.

 

(Note: On a fresh installation 125% is checked. I have manually checked 100% myself)

Edited September 6, 201313 yr by Nillervision

Looks like CSS only and SVG is the way to go - what do you think?

 

Looks like CSS only and SVG is the way to go - what do you think?

 

Where do I sign up? :D

Looks like CSS only and SVG is the way to go - what do you think?

When it comes to graphics- YES.

But Internet without photos or movies? Really?