Embedded IE Text Size Too Small (or Large)

Ever notice the text or font in applications that use an embedded Internet Explorer just isn’t the right size?  Either too small or large?  I’ve encountered this in a number of apps including Microsoft HTML Help Control (for .chm files), Windows Live Writer, and others.

Since I couldn’t find the answer online, I used my MS resources to track down this issue.  It warrants a blog post to help anyone else investigating this.  What’s going on here is that there is a registry key that defines the default text size for IE6 and earlier.  IE7 kept the old key for embedded browsers but uses a new one for full instances of IE.  Some apps (like Product Studio, an internal MS app) change the regkey without setting it back.  The result is that embedded browsers across your PC now look wrong, and there isn’t an easy way to fix it since embedded browsers don’t usually present a text size option.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\International\Scripts\3
Change IEFontSize to “02 00 00 00” for a Normal Font Size

 Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\International\Scripts\3]
"IEFontSize"=hex:02,00,00,00

Download the Reg Fix

 

Example of the CORRECT SIZE:

Example of TOO SMALL:

 

Example of TOO LARGE:

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 23, 2008
  Thanks, Noah. I've needed this since IE7 came out. ++Alan

• Anonymous
  June 23, 2008
  Thank you Noah!!  I was having a heck of a time trying to figure out why the fonts in Windows Live Writer were shrunk!  Figures that Product Studio would be the culprit ...

• Anonymous
  June 24, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 26, 2008
  Hey Kevin, That's why the 'Download Reg Fix' link is there, non-registry hackers can just click that, open it, and it'll apply the fix.

• Anonymous
  August 05, 2008
  I used to think it was just a bug in one of my Winamp plugins till I noticed other programs malfunctioning similarly. Thanks so much for the fix!

• Anonymous
  September 03, 2008
  Thanks for this, quick and easy fix to a niggly little problem with the help file on Araneae, the free code editor.

• Anonymous
  December 13, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 07, 2009
  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!  No more squinting at an application I use daily that "suddenly" developed an inexplicable case of "Honey, I Shrunk the Fonts!"

• Anonymous
  February 28, 2009
  Wow! I've been struggling with this for such a long time. Thanks, Noah.

• Anonymous
  May 14, 2009
  Do you just download this fix and it changes the font or do you have to do something else? My font is still to small. Thanks. Kat.

• Anonymous
  June 25, 2009
  please help me when I pring google driving directions it went from large type to very small  how do I fix this problem.

• Anonymous
  May 03, 2010
  My size went from large to very small.  How do i fix this?

• Anonymous
  June 04, 2010
  A better alternative: ChmZoomer from  www.goldgingko.com/.../index.htm ChmZoomer gives you handy full page zoom functionality in all other browser-based applications, such as Chm files, e-Books, RSS Reader and so on. That is just like in IE7/8.