Default Font Adjustment for WYSIWYG Text Entry

[garrett_william]

Our Canvas administrators need the ability to set the default font to 12 point or higher. 10 is very small when it comes to accessibility requirements. Most modern web standards suggest a font size between 12 and 16 pt for the displaying of text. Assignment text renders too small at 10 pt and it is annoying to have to constantly change the font formatting when creating items in Canvas. The same goes for quizzes. Changing the font for each question stem and distractor is too cumbersome.

[kmeeusen]

Hello  @garrett_william ​

Thank you for resurrecting this idea! As an Accessibility/UDL advocate, the January 2016 upgrade to a larger font did not really help.Canvas Production Release Notes (2016-01-30)

I did find an archive feature idea from 6 month's ago at https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/3070#comment-29395, but know there are more out there.Since I see no current similar requests, I am going to recommend that your idea be opened for voting during the next period, and I will vote for it!

KLM

[scottdennis]

Hello  @garrett_william 

Thank you for submitting this feature idea.  It will open for vote on June 1st.

[Renee_Carney]

This idea has moved to the next stage and will be open for voting among the Canvas Community, from Wed. June 1, 2016 - Wed. September 7, 2016.

Check out this doc for additional details about how the voting process works!

[snugent]

I agree that it would be nice to customize the display font. I personally prefer serif fonts like Georgia. I think it would be great if this was feature option in the profile.

[spowell]

Speaking of accessible, I don't mind saying this font size is very tiring for my old eyes and I can't help think it will also be tiring for some students.

[kelly_shields]

Hi Susan, you may already be aware of this, but in the meantime you can use HTML tags to specify the font you'd like to use. For example:

<p style="font-family: Georgia;">Hello, world!</p>

You can wrap the <p> tags around the entire body of text to make all of the font Georgia, or whatever font you want that is supported by HTML5.

[jdv9]

Students need the ability to adjust font size when reading the posts from other students.  We can do this for the content the instructors post (course introductions, "lectures", etc.)  Why can't we do this in the discussions?

[kmcgee]

Hello Amazing Canvas Community,

Thank you for your comments on this thread. At Canvas we care deeply about accessibility and are always improving our product to better meet the needs of all of our users. We will look into how we can best address this concern and will report back with an update.

Thank you,

The Canvas Product Team

[tmercer]

This would be a great time saver!  I like all my quiz questions to be a 14 font size.  Right now I have to change them all.  If 14 were set as a default I could just type away.  Seems like a course font default could be set up.  Hope this idea happens.  

[kim_ferbrache]

I teach SpEd students.  Creating an assignment takes a LONG time for me.  I need a minimum 18 font (and really 24 works better) for my students to independently use the program.  We all know how we have to go in and choose the editor for each question and then each and every answer in order to change the default font and size.  It's labor-intensive.  Really, it needs to work like a word document - pick the font style and size and be done with it.  It would be WONDERFUL if I could just set the default font style and size with the click of a button across my courses.  An option for us to do so and choose which courses to apply it to would be great too.  This would allow those of us with students who need the font even larger for one student to easily accommodate her in her own course and leave everyone else the same.  This option should be available to the individual instructor so s/he can easily modify assignments based on the needs of the students in his/her room.

[garrett_william]

I could not agree with you more! I recently built a suite of courses for our OCS students. The most labor intensive part of the project revolved around adjusting the font in our quizzes and content pages to a more accessible size.

We actually design our assignments in Google docs, publish them and embed them into the course. For this reason, font adjustment was easy to implement when designing assignments and discussion boards. It also allows us to update a multiple courses at once when we want to update or revise an assignment. I wish there was an easier way.

[f_latulipe]

Teachers want the flexibility to use the font which suits their content best, and most teachers do not have the confidence to edit the HTML code to change the fonts that way.  A way to change the font in the Media editor would be useful.  Of course the fonts to choose from could be limited to the ones that device agnostic.  But a bit of choice here would be useful.

I know that there was a design decision to use LATO font as the default on all instructure products, but if Canvas allows us to change the font in the HTML code, then why not as a drop down in the media editor?

[f_latulipe]

For example:  Someone adding content to a programming course on Canvas, may want to include something like:

            ‘The keyword is for in a loop.’

i.e. being able to change the 'font' for specific words on a page without resorting to HTML editing, but by selecting some characters and selecting a different font from a list.

[Renee_Carney]

 @garrett_william ‌

We recently marked https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/7956-increase-default-font-size" modifiedtitle="true" title="I... with the font size increased described in the 7-15-2017 Production Release Notes.  Has this change also fulfilled your idea?

[kim_ferbrache]

I haven’t seen the increase in size. I am building assignments today and the default font is still 12 – way too small for my SpEd students.

Kim

[tmercer]

I haven't seen it either.  

[anita_webb]

It is interesting that so many comments are about making the font larger.  Mine seems to come up as 14 point, which is like reading primary grade text.  Is there a way to set the default font size or style? 

[kim_ferbrache]

Not currently. It has to be done by hand for EVERY question, answer, task. This takes FOREVER - especially for those of. Us with SpEd students who need an 18 or 24 font for everything.

[snugent]

You can't specifically in Canvas unless you use the formatting options in the rich content editor, however, every browser allows users to set the default font size for that browser regardless of set text size of website being viewed. 

• Firefox: Change the fonts and colors websites use
• Chrome: Change text, image, and video sizes (zoom)
• Internet Explorer Ease of Access options

[elad33]

I would like to be able to set my preferred default font size once and not have to edit every single question and every single answer just to make my quizzes presentable.