In this section

Fonts

Monitor resolution

DPI setting

Printing

Site usage tips

Fonts

If you are having a problem viewing our site’s pages due to fonts that are either too small or too large, you can control the fonts’ sizes from within your web browser. This only works on fonts within a web page that have been set up to be scalable. It will not work where fonts have been set to a fixed size. We strongly recommend using the text size “medium” for best viewing of this site.

To change font size in Internet Explorer 6:

1. Go to the pull-down menu at the top of the screen
2. Select View > Text Size > (choose either larger or smaller depending on your need; medium is best)

To change font size in Internet Explorer 7 and 8:

1. Go to the pull-down menu at the upper right of the screen
2. Select Page > Text Size > (choose either larger or smaller depending on your need; medium is best)

Also, from within your Display control panel, be sure you have your overall font size set as “Normal” and that you are not using the “Large Fonts” or “Extra Large Fonts” settings.

Lastly, unless you have issues regarding accessibility, you should choose to accept our website’s font faces, colors and sizes as we have set them in our style sheets. To double-check that this is the case, in Internet Explorer 7’s pull-down menus, click Tools, then select Internet Options. In the General tab, click Accessibilty. Make sure all boxes in the Accessibilty window are unchecked.

Monitor resolution

The minimum monitor (screen) resolution that can be used for viewing pages at full width on this site is 1024 pixels by 768 pixels. A higher resolution of 1280 x 1024 provides for increased viewing of information further down the page and helps eliminate the need for vertical scrolling. If a higher resolution is available on your computer, we recommend using it for maximum viewing satisfaction, unless you require larger fonts for reading comfort. In such an instance, we recommend using the lower resolutions (1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024) rather than increasing font size via the browser’s pull-down menu.

Set your monitor resolution by opening the Display Control Panel and selecting the resolution that works best for you, your monitor, and for viewing this site.

DPI setting

The standard, or “normal,” DPI setting for PCs is 96. Many video cards allow users to set higher fixed settings, or custom settings that the user determines. All settings other than 96 DPI may affect the layout of CSS elements in our web pages, causing them to separate from each other or misalign in other ways.

To check your monitor’s DPI setting, open the Display Control Panel, click the Settings tab, and then click the Advanced button. This will bring up your video card's settings panel. For example, in the panel for an ATI Radeon card, clicking the Advanced button brings up a multi-tabbed panel. In this case, be sure the General tab is selected. Check the number in the small window for DPI setting. If it is not 96, use the small pull-down menu to return the setting to “Normal size (96 DPI).”

Printing

If you need to print one of our site’s pages, please be aware that we use separate style sheets for printing. These will eliminate page elements that are not needed on the printed page, such as the main image-based header at the top of every page, the blue bar of links immediately beneath that header, the left column navigation and messages beneath, and the footer at the bottom of the page. This will allow more of the printed page area to be devoted to useful information.

For all background colors and images to appear on printed copies of our pages, please be sure you have that feature turned on in your web browser. In Internet Explorer 7 and 8, in the pull-down menus at the upper right corner of the window, select Tools, then Internet Options. In the Internet Options window, select the Advanced tab. In that window, and within the Settings section, scroll to the section for printing options and be sure the box is checked next to “Print background colors and images.”

You can check to see what any of our site’s pages will look like when printed by using your browser’s Print Preview command. In some browsers, you can find Print Preview by choosing File > Print Preview. In Internet Explorer 7 and 8, click and hold on the small downward pointing arrow next to the printer icon located in the upper right corner of your screen, and slide your mouse pointer down to choose Print Preview.

In Print Preview mode, you usually will have the option of adjusting the left-right and top-bottom margins prior to printing. We have already inserted page breaks in optimal places on many of our pages. You can control page breaks to some degree by adjusting overall scaling and page margins.