Thunderbird suddenly started showing plain-text messages in HUGE fixed-width font
I prefer plain-text messages, and use them as the default. I've had no problems with having ordinary-sized characters showing in messages I send or those I receive . . . until very recently. Suddenly, all my plain-text messages (old as well as new, and across at least two active accounts within the same copy of Thunderbird) show up in HUGE fonts -- about 36-point, I'd guess.
I don't know why -- whether somebody sent me a message which caused this (from its own content or through a bug) or it's the fault of some other program. I'm running under Windows 11 and am at version 102.7.2 -- and will gladly update to 102.8 if that will help, but don't want to jump the gun.
I hope there is a simple answer to this.
Chosen solution
Thanks for at least a good clue, and probably a solution. And I'm only saying "probably" because I still don't know how it all happened, or the source of the size problem itself, so I'd like to let it sit for a day or three first.
The "Language and Appearance" section on the General tab of the Settings page had Calibri 14 as default font. I think I'd looked there, but I knew Calibri (which I'm getting used to) was a proportional-width font . . . and I didn't see a fixed-width font there, so I couldn't tell if that option applied to fixed-width fonts. When I tried going into the Advanced options, I went down the list and saw the font chosen for plain-text messages was something called "Consolas" -- which I'd never heard of, and certainly never selected myself. It also said the size setting was the same 14 as for Calibri, so I don't know how the huge characters I saw started appearing. (Is Consolas usually extra-big?) Anyway, I re-set that to Courier New (still at 14), which I believe I had chosen before -- and it seems to have changed the text of the old messages back to a more normal size.
Again, thank you. If nothing else messes this up in a few days, I'll gladly mark it as a solution. (I'd still like to know how this happened, if you or anyone else has clues to that . . . but the solution itself is more important.)
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NOTE: The problem happens only in messages themselves -- in the message pane (at the bottom of the Thunderbird window, as I have it set up with the folder and message lists sharing the top of the window).
Have a look in settings (search fonts) click the advanced button and check the size of the Monospace font set there (it is in pixels, not points)
Chosen Solution
Thanks for at least a good clue, and probably a solution. And I'm only saying "probably" because I still don't know how it all happened, or the source of the size problem itself, so I'd like to let it sit for a day or three first.
The "Language and Appearance" section on the General tab of the Settings page had Calibri 14 as default font. I think I'd looked there, but I knew Calibri (which I'm getting used to) was a proportional-width font . . . and I didn't see a fixed-width font there, so I couldn't tell if that option applied to fixed-width fonts. When I tried going into the Advanced options, I went down the list and saw the font chosen for plain-text messages was something called "Consolas" -- which I'd never heard of, and certainly never selected myself. It also said the size setting was the same 14 as for Calibri, so I don't know how the huge characters I saw started appearing. (Is Consolas usually extra-big?) Anyway, I re-set that to Courier New (still at 14), which I believe I had chosen before -- and it seems to have changed the text of the old messages back to a more normal size.
Again, thank you. If nothing else messes this up in a few days, I'll gladly mark it as a solution. (I'd still like to know how this happened, if you or anyone else has clues to that . . . but the solution itself is more important.)
Consolas is a default font and largely replaces Courier in newer Windows. My guess if changing the name fixed it the font file in windows is corrupt.
Searching fonts in windows task bar and selecting "font Settings" in the results will open the windows font viewer and allow you to check the status of the relevant font file.
Hmm . . . I don't see a "status" indicator when I open the font -- the nearest I get for all four variations is where it says the embeddability is "editable". And AVG didn't find any malware in it.
But I can delete the Consolas fonts -- AFAIK, I don't *need* them for anything else -- and if a need arises, it looks (from some quick searching) like I can try downloading them again. Or I can just ignore the font, since I've told Thunderbird to ignore it, and wait to see if anything goes wrong again.
So no clear indication of the cause yet, but a possibility -- and the problem itself is still gone, so the countdown to approving the solution continues. And thanks again.