Font issues with Thunderbird email program

Ever since I've installed Thunderbird on my new imac I've had problems with the font. I've tried fixing it via the Thunderbird site and "font settings" info and still have 2 problems.

1. Size of font

This is my biggest problem .....

When I type in plain text, the size is OK. And when I view any emails that I've sent in plain text, the font of the "sender" etc is the same size as the font in the body of the email. This is important to me as I'm often printing emails that I send so I want uniform text size.

It's when I type an email in html that I have problems with font size.

As I type, the font is way too big on the screen - double or triple normal (text) font size. And when I open up the email that I've sent, and go to print it, the size of the font used in the "To" and "sender" etc section is about triple the size of the font in the body of the email. So obviously not good to print and use in a professional situation.

2. The type of font

The font style/type is different in the to/from addresses and the body of the email, for both plain text and html emails. Note I like and would like to have everything as Times New Roman font


My settings are

Resolution - 1366 x 768

First font screen (NOT the advanced) Times new roman - size 12

Advanced font - Fonts for user defined
Proportion - Sans Serif 12
Serif - Times New Roman
Sans Serif - Times New Roman
Mono - times new Roman - 12
Min - none
Plus ticked the "Use fixed width font for plain text messages"


I hope this makes sense. And hope I've left enough info for you to be able to help .....

Thanks everyone

I use Thunderbird primarily as a New Reader for NNTP forums and really have only used it on rare occasions for mail. Having said that, Thunderbird settings are difficult at best to regulate especially for incoming and outgoing messages. After many tries and experimentation I have the font and font size the way I want. The only suggestion I can give you is to experiment with the settings until you get them to your satisfaction. Another problem is there isn't a whole lot of information available for Thunderbird other than what Mozilla provides on line when you click on help.