Difference in font size on AIM between Mac and Windows.

Paivilo

Paivilo

Registered
Sorry if this has been answered already but I did a search and was unsuccessful.

I have a question regarding running AIM on Mac OSX. I have something that has been bothering me for over a year and for some reason I never thought to ask someone until now, hmm.

Anyway, when I am on AIM on my iBook the size of the font appears larger on Windows. For instance, if it is set at size 10 on Mac it appears as size 12 on a Windows computer. Or if it is at 12 on mine, then it appears as 14 on Windows and so on.

I'm wondering if it is just my computer or if it is like that on all Macs. And if it is on all Macs, can I do anything to change it or is it just one of those things you can't do anything about? I'd appreciate any help you guys could give me. Thanks!

EDIT: Now that I have posted this I realized that it is in the wrong section. Sorry about that!
 
It must be something wrong with your PC make sure all settings are correct. it works fine on mines also fine on Linux since I run all 3 OS on 3different Machines I have a Mac OSX laptop
 
Your computers may have different screen resolutions/sizes which would make the fonts in the same point size appear to be different sizes...
 
That's the thing. The resolution is the same on both computers. And I know that it's not just my PC because it is like that on every PC that I've tried. It must just be my Mac. However I don't know how to fix it since I know it's not the resolution. As for the size, I have the 14 inch iBook, so it's not like my screen is freakishly small or anything.
 
Is it possible that you have a minimum font set in one AIM program that you don't for the other? That might explain it. Is the font difference causing you difficulty?
 
No, I really don't see anything that would indicate a minimum font size, unless I'm looking in the wrong place. I checked my AIM preferences and account settings and nothing seems to be relevant. Would this be located somewhere else that I'm not realizing?

The difference in size is not really anything that makes IM-ing difficult for me, it's just really annoying and I'd like to know what's causing this.
 
So I realized something... the font is not literally a different size, it just appears that way. For example, if I have the font size set to 10, it appears as 10 on both Mac and Windows, yet Mac's 10 appears smaller than Windows' 10. But this does not happen with any other program than AIM. When I try it in Word or something, it appears correctly, but for some reason the fonts are just naturally smaller on AIM. It is like this with incoming IM's as well, not just my outgoing messages. So basically AIM's font sizes just appear smaller than they really are. I don't know if this makes sense or not.

I'm sorry to keep pressing this but I'm like on a mission now to figure out why this is. It's really frustrating.
 
Adjust the screen resolution on the PC to the same as your iBook. That should fix it... GUI elements will always be a different size when the screen resolution is different.
This may be changed, if the rumors about resolution-independent GUI is true with Leopard.
 
Check your dpi on both computers. Normally, macs run at 72 dpi and pcs run at 96dpi...this article explains more:
http://home.earthlink.net/~bobbau/platforms/text-size/

And more articles here:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=cr...=UTF-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&fr=moz2

Could be the reason why your fonts look different; however browsers today attempt to mitigate this font issue.

Do you have your pc set to 'small fonts' or 'large fonts'? This can also make a difference (covered in the article above).
 
Was this solved? I have the SAME exact problem. I doubt it has anything to do with the screen resolution and/or dpi. If your on AIM and set the font to any one, and set it to a size 10 it's tiny as diny as dust. But we all know font ten is small but not THAT small. Regarding the font size 10 in Word on Mac OSX and a PC. I'm thinking it's probably just AIM on a MAC.
 
No, it was never solved. I tried everything I could think of, but I've just learned to deal with it. I wish AIM would update the program for Macs. It's been like 20 freakin years. Ok not that long, but still.
 
Paivilo said:
No, it was never solved. I tried everything I could think of, but I've just learned to deal with it. I wish AIM would update the program for Macs. It's been like 20 freakin years. Ok not that long, but still.
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Why not use Adium? It supports AIM, MSN, Yahoo, MySpaceIM, and a bunch of other protocols.

http://www.adiumx.com

Or you could just use iChat which also does the same and already comes with the Mac.
 
I've tried Adium and I absolutely hate it. Also, I deleted iChat a while back because I didn't like that either. I'm good with AIM.
 
Paivilo said:
I've tried Adium and I absolutely hate it. Also, I deleted iChat a while back because I didn't like that either. I'm good with AIM.
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Ah well....to each his/her own. I can't stand the AIM client on ANY platform....haven't for years now. :p
 
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