When you visit a high-end website like a major news outlet or a tech blog, the designers have explicitly told your browser which fonts to display. However, when you visit a simpler website, a plain text directory, or a basic forum that does not specify a font, Google Chrome will fall back on its own default settings to render the text.
By default, Chrome uses Times New Roman (a serif font) for standard text and Arial (a sans-serif font) when no specific font is requested. If you find these fonts boring, difficult to read, or just too small, you can easily change Chrome’s default rendering engine.
How to Change the Default Fonts
You can customize the fonts deep within the browser’s settings menu.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click the three-dot menu icon in the top-right corner.
- Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on Appearance.
- Click on Customize fonts.
You are now in the central font control room. You will see several different options you can customize:
- Standard font: This is the most important setting. If a website simply says “display text,” Chrome will use this font. (Default: Times New Roman).
- Serif font: If a website specifically asks for a serif font (letters with little “feet” on the ends) but doesn’t name a specific one, Chrome uses this.
- Sans-serif font: If a website asks for a clean, modern font without feet, Chrome uses this.
- Fixed-width font: This is used when displaying computer code or plain text files, ensuring every letter takes up the exact same amount of horizontal space. (Default: Consolas).
Click the drop-down menu next to any of these categories to select a new font installed on your computer. For example, changing the Standard Font from Times New Roman to Helvetica or Open Sans will instantly modernize the look of many older websites.
How to Change the Default Font Size
If your eyesight isn’t what it used to be, you don’t need to manually zoom in on every single webpage you visit. You can tell Chrome to render all text larger by default.
On that exact same Customize fonts settings page, look at the very top for two sliders:
- Font size: Drag this slider to the right to universally increase the size of text across the internet. A preview box above the slider will show you exactly how large the text will be.
- Minimum font size: This is a brilliant accessibility feature. If you drag this slider to “14”, Chrome will aggressively overwrite any website’s design to ensure that absolutely no text on the page ever renders smaller than 14-point font, guaranteeing you can always read the fine print.