How to Change Font Size in Windows 7 (Quick Tip)

If you would like to make text larger or smaller on-screen for better visibility or because of a visual impairment, this article will show you how to change font size in Windows.

Since the introduction Windows Vista, Microsoft has made great improvements to Windows 7’s DPI (Dots Per Inch which refers to the screens resolutions) scaling technology which allows more information to fit into a smaller amount of space. This delivers a much higher quality output, text and pictures on-screen are smoother and crisper.

Windows 7 Start Menu

Click Start, type: text

Windows 7 text size

Hit Enter on your keyboard.

Windows 7 Text Options

Windows 7 Text Options

This will open the Display item, here you will see options available for making text larger or smaller on-screen.

  1. Choose one of the following:
    • Smaller – 100% (default). This keeps text and other items at normal size.
    • Medium – 125%. This sets text and other items to 125% of normal size.
    • Larger – 150%. This sets text and other items to 150% of normal size. This option appears only if your monitor supports a resolution of at least 1200 x 900 pixels. Check out Notebooks.com article about how to change your screen resolution.
  2. Click Apply.

Windows restart prompt

You will be prompted to log off before changes can take effect. After you have logged off, log in again.

Windows 7 larger text

Windows 7 with larger text.

You will notice that text and items are much larger than they were before on-screen.

Windows 7 smaller text

Windows 7 smaller text (Before)

If you would like to make it even larger, open the Display item and click Set custom text size (DPI) and click in the Scale to this percentage of normal size: list box and select a higher percentage.

Windows 7 Scaling

How to make Windows font size even larger.

If you would like to return to a smaller size or the default text size, select the Smaller – 100% (default) option

Windows 7 Font Size Menu

Windows 7 font size menu

Click Apply.

You will be prompted to log off before changes can take effect. After you have logged off, log in again.

Changing the font size in this manner will make all of your Windows 7 menus and on screen items larger, allowing seniors or those with poor eyesight to read easier on the screen. This will increase the font on your computer, but it will not increase the font size on documents you send to others.

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