In this section:

This section describes how to customize the fonts and colors that Flock uses to display text on the web. The information in this section is very detailed. If all you want to do is enlarge the font, just press the Ctrl, Shift, and + (plus sign) keys together. On Mac, press Cmd (Apple key), Shift, and + . (Press Ctrl or Cmd and minus sign to reverse.)

• Accessing the Content tab
• Choosing fonts for web pages
• Advanced Font Settings
• Changing the default color settings

Accessing the Content tab

All of the instructions on this page refer to the Content tab in the Options window. How you access the content tab depends on which operating system you are using.

To access the Content tab

1. Open the Options or Preferences window.
   How you access the window depends upon your operating system.
   • If you are using Windows, open the Tools menu and choose Options.
   • If you are using Linux, open the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
   • If you are using Mac OS, open the Flock menu and choose Preferences.
2. Select the Content tab.

Choosing fonts for web pages

Normally you view a web page with the fonts and colors chosen by the page's author. If a web page doesn't have its own font Flock uses a default font to display the text on that page.

If you prefer, you can choose which fonts will be used to display web content. To specify what the default should be, open the Default Font menu and select a font. Be sure to also choose a size from the Size menu.

Advanced Font Settings

Click the Advanced button to set additional font preferences. The advanced Fonts window will open.

From the advanced Fonts window you can change a lot of the default font settings for your browser.

• From the Fonts for drop-down list, choose a language group/script. For instance, to set default fonts for the West European languages/scripts (Latin), choose Western. For a language/script not yet in the list, choose Other Languages.
• Select whether proportional text should be serif (like Times New Roman) or sans-serif (like Arial). Then specify the font size you want for proportional text.
• Specify the font to use for serif and sans-serif fonts.
• Specify the font and size to use for monospace text. (In a monospace font, all letters take up the same amount of space: a skinny letter like "l" takes up the same amount of space as a fat letter like "o." Monospace fonts are often used for formulas and equations.)
• Choose a display resolution, which is normally 96 dpi.
• Set the minimum font size to be used on screen. This can be useful on some sites with very small fonts that are barely readable.
• Specify the default character encoding. A character encoding is, in a manner of speaking, the magic that lets a computer understand, manipulate, and correctly display letters. The default is used to display pages that do not specify which encoding to use. Normally you do not need to change this setting.

Once you've set all these detailed choices, you will probably want to put a checkmark next to "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above." This means that when a web page's author has made choices about how the page should look, those choices will be preserved. If you un-check this box all pages will be forced to your font settings.

Changing the default color settings

Normally, web page authors choose colors for the pages they create. You can choose the color to use for text and background on web pages that don't have that information specified. To specify default colors for web pages, click the Colors button. In the Colors window you can change a variety of settings.

• Click the color rectangles to select colors.
• Put a checkmark next to "Use system colors" to use the colors defined in your computer's settings instead of the colors specified above.
• You can change the default colors for links. Click the color samples to select colors.
• By default, links are underlined on web pages. Uncheck "Underline links" to disable this. Note that many sites specify their own styling rules and this preference has no effect on those sites.
• By default, Flock uses the colors specified by the web page author. To force all sites to use your default colors instead uncheck "Allow pages to choose their own colors, instead of my selections above."