Eternal September Newsreader Font size

Try pressing ctrl-zero

Thanks Andy I've tried that but it doesn't seem to do anything.

Thunderbird upgrade probably

Ctrl Scroll sets the size of the current window

Do ctrl-plus or ctrl-minus have any effect?

in all cases (zero/plus/minus) don't use the numpad.

Thanks Andy control+ seems to work.

colour me surprised that ctrl-zero didn't then ...

Might be that "Jack's normal" was slightly zoomed in, so actual normal seemed small.

(CTRL + Mouse wheel also adjusts the zoom)

-- Cheers,

John.

/=================================================================\ | Internode Ltd -

On 04 Jun 2025, John Rumm wrote

Re: the subject line:

I'm pretty sure font size and zoom controls are down to whatever newsreader (didn't that used to be a "news client"?) is being used; I don't think it has anything to do with the EternalSeptember end of things.

I use a (now-ancient) newsreader, XNews, which as far as I can tell has no option to change (let alone zoom) the font size.

I think they were always called newsreaders, but since news is mostly read using email clients, that doesn't strictly apply now.

No, nntp is like email, it is characters only which are sent, as it dates from the days when even text characters taxed modems somewhat. It is the client, the desktop environment and the window manager which between them sort out the visual display. The client should have overriding control of font issues.

All this assumes, of course, that it is not embedded HTML which is being viewed, and the CTRL options of Mozilla applications should still work on that.

Usenet is an ASCII text only protocol. Even things like å are not strictly supported. They slip by because extended character sets can be slipped through as 8 bit text. Specifically HTML/MIME markup is not officially supported, so forget bold, underline. italic, font set, font size, colour or anything else.

It was designed to be displayed on a VT100 terminal

Almost certainly not. Thunderbird however is a fully MIME compliant email client and can have its defaults mucked around with almost indefinitely. It is infested and overgrown with that dreaded weed, creeping featurism, and needs a big dose of weedkiller after every new release

So use Claws if you don't need calendars etc. It's not feature-free but it's dramatically faster than TB, which is why I switched.

Control+ actually works on other programmes besides Eternal September too.

Yes, though it's pretty common across various software, but I (and likely other people) looked at Jack's headers to check that he was using TB before replying ...

Thanks to all for your suggestions, they will save me from a trip to Specsavers.

JH

That is correct... although I did have a look at the User-Agent: header of his post to deduce he was using Thunderbird, and so gave instructions for that.

As does Ctrl-Scrollwheel, at least in this Linux, desktop

Not very helpful but thanks anyway.

I used ES with a lot of problems then changed to NIN at 10 Euros per year with virtually no problems. My granny used to say 'you get what you pay for'.