Those who have used the MS Word word processor at least a couple of times in their lives probably know where in this program you can change the font size. This is a small box on the Home tab, located in the Font tool group. The drop-down list of this window contains a list of standard values ​​​​from smallest to largest - choose any.

The problem is that not all users know how to increase the font in Word more than 72 units, specified by default, or how to make it less than the standard 8, or how you can set any arbitrary value. In fact, it is quite simple to do this, which we will discuss below.

Change font size to custom values

1. Select the text, the size of which you want to make larger than the standard 72 units, using the mouse.

Note: If you're just planning on entering text, just click where it should be.

2. On the quick access panel in the tab "Home" in the tool group "Font", in the box next to the name of the font, where it is indicated numerical value, click the mouse.

3. Highlight set value and delete it by clicking back space or "Delete".

4. Enter the desired font size and click "ENTER", not forgetting that the text still has to somehow fit on the page.

Lesson: How to change the page format in Word

5. The font size will be changed according to the values ​​you specified.

In exactly the same way, you can change the font size down, that is, less than the standard 8. In addition, arbitrary values ​​​​other than standard steps can be set in the same way.

Change font size step by step

It is far from always possible to immediately understand what kind of font size is needed. If you do not know this, you can try changing the font size step by step.

1. Select the piece of text you want to resize.

2. In the tool group "Font"(tab "Home") press the button with a capital letter BUT(to the right of the window with the size) to increase the size or the button with a smaller letter BUT to reduce it.

3. The font size will change with each click on the button.

Note: Using the buttons to incrementally change the font size allows you to increase or decrease the font only in standard values ​​(steps), but not in order. And yet, in this way it is possible to make the size larger than the standard 72 or less than 8 units.

You can learn more about what else you can do with fonts in Word and how to change them in our article.

Lesson: How to change the font in Word

As you can see, increasing or decreasing the font in Word above or below standard values ​​is quite simple. We wish you success in the further development of all the subtleties of this program.

We are glad we were able to help you resolve the issue.

Ask your question in the comments, describing in detail the essence of the problem. Our experts will try to answer as quickly as possible.

Did this article help you?

Despite the rapid development information technologies and the emergence of various gadgets associated with them, the main assistants of students during the exams are still the good old cheat sheets, or as the students themselves jokingly call them "spurs". These small, fine print strips of paper have stood the test of time and are still used by many students during the exam period.

What can help modern technologies- so this is in the process of preparing cheat sheets. Typewritten text typed in the Word editor will allow you to get the maximum density of information per unit area of ​​the sheet, while before you had to write spurs manually in small handwriting.

Consider step by step one of the possible options for compiling spurs in text editor Word, tools, functions and settings used for this.

1. As mentioned above, in the process of creating cheat sheets, it is necessary to use the paper area as much as possible possible way. This means that one sheet of A4 format should include several columns of textual information, which will then be cut into appropriate strips. Therefore, the first thing to start with is to set the general formatting of the page and break the sheet into several columns.
2. Set the left and right margins on a sheet of paper equal to 0.5-1.0 cm. They must be made equal in size so that the columns do not shift during duplex printing, and the sheet of paper after drawing up the spur can be cut without affecting the text itself.
   To do this, go to the tab Page layout and click on the arrow in the lower right corner in the settings group Page settings.

   setting page parametersIn the window that opens, set the values ​​for the top, bottom, left and right margins and click the button OK to apply the settings.

   setting page parameters You cannot leave a document completely without margins, since the boundaries of the text may go beyond the printable area of ​​​​the printer and as a result you will either get cropped text, or you will have to change the formatting of an already created cheat sheet.

   It is possible that when setting the margins to the same size, the printer itself will shift the text to one side by several millimeters during printing. In this case, you will need to adjust the left and right margins. For example, if during printing, due to the characteristics of the printer, the text shifts to the left, then in the text editor in the page settings, you need to increase the left margin and decrease the right.

   It is advisable to carry out a test print with the selected fields on your printer in order to select their optimal value and not waste time later on editing finished spurs.

3. Break the page into columns. Here you need to proceed from the value of the width that you want to get in ready-made cheat sheets. For example, if you need a crib width of 5 cm, then you need to divide an A4 sheet with the above settings into four equal columns.
   Column breakdown is performed as follows. Being in the same settings group Page layout click on the button speakers and in the drop-down menu, select the last item Other columns.

   setting the number of columns per sheetIn the window that opens, set in the line Number of columns value 4, check the box Separator, as a result of which horizontal lines will appear on your sheet, along which it will be convenient for you to cut the sheet later. Next, check that there is a check mark on the item columns of the same size and reduce the spacing between columns to 0.2 cm. Press the button OK to apply the settings.

   setting up columns in a document

4. Make sure that no extra padding is set within the columns. To do this, in the menu group home click on the triangle in the lower right corner in the settings group Paragraph and check the left and right padding value. They should be set to 0 cm. Set the line spacing to the size of the font used. We recommend focusing on values ​​​​of 6-7 pt.

   checking indents in a document

5. The minimum font size available for selection in Word corresponds to 8 points. To use a smaller font size, select the font size value, delete it by pressing the key Delete or backspace on the keyboard and enter the value you want. The optimal font size is 5-7 pt. Please note that it is possible to enter fractional values ​​separated by commas. For example: 5.5, 6.5 and so on.
6. Type the desired text or paste it in partial or full copy if it is stored electronically. It is recommended to use compact, well-read fonts. For example, Times New Roman. An example of a very unfortunate typeface that is heavily stretched horizontally is Courier New.
7. In order to save space, it is also advisable to use various abbreviations, such as those used when taking notes from lectures. For example, the word "state" can be halved to "state", "management" can be reduced to "management", "formula" to "f-la", "function" to "f-ya" and so on. Use search and replace in text to replace all occurrences of abbreviated words.
8. You can apply highlighting with colored markers or felt-tip pens to various key points in the text. If you are the proud owner of a color laser printer, then this operation is very easy to do in Word itself by highlighting sections of text with color.

   highlighting

9. Print the typed sheet in duplex mode and carefully cut the sheets along the vertical dividing lines.
10. Now it remains only to fold the spurs "accordion" or cut them into separate cards, depending on what is more convenient for you and choose the place where you will store them for the exam.

Thus, modern technologies can be successfully used to create small spurs. We will leave the issues of ethical use of the tricks discussed in the article to the personal consideration of each. We only note that it has always been believed that even a simple compilation of cheat sheets is already useful if they are compiled with one's own hand. You may never need to use them. After all, in the process of creating them, you at least repeat the information and remember it.

Also an important factor is that the presence of spurs allows many examinees to reduce psychological stress before the exam, which in itself increases the chances of passing it successfully.

When using the Word program to design their documents, users do not even realize that you can do much more with this program than the various settings offered in the menu. This is the case with fonts as well. When choosing a font size, many users have a question, how to make the font in Word more than 72 or how to make the font in Word less than 8, because it is these values ​​that are specified in the settings as the maximum and minimum font size.

In fact, making a large font in Word or making a small font in Word is as easy as typing the text itself. The font size in Word is not limited to the specified sizes from 8 to 72, and to make the font in Word less than 8 or more than 72, you just need to enter the required value yourself.

If you wish, you can even make the default font in Word exactly the way you need it. To do this, go to the "Font" settings on the "Home" tab, configure all the parameters and click the "Default" button. Now, when creating new documents in Word, the font you have chosen will be installed by default.

Also articles on the site chajnikam.ru related to the Word program:
How to open a ruler in Word?
How to make a red line in Word?

Hyphenation in Word How to create a table in Word?

What is the minimum font size
Are the letters of the Russian alphabet still recognized?

• 13px:
• 9px: The fly sat on the jam, that's all the poem.
• 6px: The fly sat on the jam, that's all the poem.
• 5px: The fly sat on the jam, that's all the poem.

Words in small print are guessed by the letters of a simple form: U, O, T ...

Let's take a closer look at the five-pixel font:

So, the first estimate showed that 4 pixels in height is enough to read the Russian text with difficulty, but still.
Where are the 4 pixels from? → 3 pixels + extension (1 pixel) for letters like P, Y, L...

Well readable letters

In order for the letters to be read without question, you need to space adjacent strokes from each other by at least one pixel. By the letters E (3 horizontal strokes) and Щ (4 vertical strokes) we determine the minimum height and width:

Microfonts use translucency to save size, or change the classic letterforms:

The semi-transparent stroke at the letter E made it possible to reduce its height by 1 pixel (you can also reduce it by 2). But now we will do without these chips (for the purity of the experiment), however, the stroke of the letter Ш will have to be neglected (this is the widest letter).

Get the minimum letter size: 5×5 pixels. Let's draw a check alphabet:

Letters can be drawn in different ways, but it is obvious that the size of 5x5 can be kept within, and at the same time there is even freedom for stylizing the font.

On the Spectrum (a computer from my childhood), the letters fit into an 8×8 square (their actual size was 6×6 so as not to stick together). Dozens of unique fonts have been created in this small format. Ah, nostalgia

By the way, another trick: capital letters instead of lowercase (and vice versa). For example, lowercase d less than capital. In the newly drawn font, I had to use lowercase th: otherwise the upper "bird" did not fit.

A bit of information theory

There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet, but writing requires at least numbers and punctuation marks. For example, 2 6 = 64 different characters can be entered into a 2 × 3 rectangle, and this number is enough to transmit our set of letters, numbers and signs. These fictitious symbols will be completely different from Russian letters:

By the way, a 5×5 pixel canvas allows you to create 33,554,432 different characters.

Language redundancy

In the pursuit of micro-size, you can generally abandon complex letters(or portray them exaggeratedly). The Russian language is great and powerful, and also quite redundant: words with loss of characters are determined based on the context.

Inexpressive notes, footnotes that are fatal to the eye, instructions that can only be read with a magnifying glass, and even books from the “What would you like for that kind of money” series - all this is he, our hero. Someone is sad to put up with the inevitability, but for a professional, small print is a completely solvable typographic task, although not a pleasant one. The ability to cope with it is a sign of literacy and professionalism of the designer.

The very expression "small print" is conditional, and therefore is taken in quotation marks. Technically skittle(size) is not a characteristic of a font, but from a design point of view, each font still has an optimal size range in which it is better readable. Favorite font size Octave eighth, this is clear from its name (distinction deteriorates in sizes less than 6-7, and in sizes more than 12 the typeface seems rough). Majority text headset ( Baltika, Literary, Petersburg, Baskerville and Caslon) in all incarnations, Postmark Garamon and other versions close to the original source Garamon, of course, Times designed for standard book size 10-12. Peculiar text font Academic has an elaborate pattern and a very small point, as a result of which in 12 size it looks like Times at 10, and at 10 or less it turns into unreadable beads. No less original Sentor(in Cyrillic version Venetian 301) also prefers a slightly larger size, because this is a true Venetian antiqua, which quite accurately reproduces the features of the typeface of Nicholas Jenson, created in 1470, and then books were typed in larger type.

Loved by all last years ITC Officina perfect in 10 pin and sharp (especially ITC Officina Serif) loses readability when reduced to 7-8. But it makes no sense to reduce Ofitsina and so saves up to a third of the text space.

ITC Charter — rare example universal font. It can withstand heavy reduction and looks good in large sizes, even in headings.

Designed based on fonts typewriters group led by By courier looks best in 12 size, and some are perfectly readable in 10 and even smaller. But after all, there were practically no such typewriters in our country, 12-point font was considered the standard, and publishing houses accepted only such printed manuscripts. And here is the result: the eye is used to a certain typewritten font size. It seems that now nothing prevents printing Yatran any size (at least 13.5), but the reader, especially the older generation, will definitely feel discomfort

Everything handwritten fonts (calligraphic and freehand) are best printed in accordance with the size of the letters written by hand (14-18 points). In small sizes, it will seem that some gnome wrote the text, and it will not be easy to read.

How to choose

Not all fonts, even text fonts, can be reduced to 6-7, especially smaller sizes. But if one Academic, Bodoni) protest categorically, others ( Bannikovskaya, ITC Garamon) are relatively well tolerated. The problem is solved by simply flipping through the catalog and selecting. Experienced typesetters also know some useful patterns. It is intuitively clear that a candidate for the role of small print must have certain characteristics.

In a report by British typographer Mark Barrett at the ATypI conference in Helsinki in September 2005, the following rules for constructing or selecting type for use in small size are given:

1. The font design should be simple, clear and familiar. Revolutionary forms and design delights are out of place.
2. The font should have an increased point of lowercase characters and wide proportions.
3. The contrast is relatively weak, about 3/4.
4. Open forms are preferable to closed ones.
5. There are either no serifs at all, or they should be “strengthened”, giving a simple and even rough form. The font should not have details that disappear when reduced.

ITC Garamon, for example, differs from the canonical versions Garamon greatly altered proportions: it has a very large point and reduced, curvy extensions. Not the best font for book layout, but it is successfully used for technical purposes in 6-7 size. A large point and fairly wide proportions has Bitstream Cooper, but ITC Officina Sans, although it is a grotesque with a large point, does not allow a strong reduction, since it is very narrow. Even worse tolerates reduction ITC Officina Serif, this is also prevented by massive bar serifs. Sentor ( Venetian 301) makes it difficult to work in small size, another font is too light, solemn (by the way, its bold and bold faces are better suited for ordinary book types than normal). It is unacceptable to use the new style antiqua in small size. Thin horizontal elements Dido and any version Bodoni literally begin to disappear, the font will not only be unreadable, but downright indistinguishable. Against this background, the headset unexpectedly looks advantageous in small size Bannikovskaya. Created in 1946-51. Designed by Galina Bannikova, this graceful book font copes with a difficult task due to a precisely calibrated, poignant design.

A well-known French designer, president of ATypI Jean-Francois Porchez, who has extensive experience in designing advanced typefaces for newspapers and magazines, actually highlights the following rule for constructing such a typeface. Along with the usual rows of styles, differing in weight and slope, a kind of display axis is created, along which the styles change according to their purpose and preferred font size. On such an axis, you can place fonts for headings, subheadings, standard text and options for typing very small: imprint, captions for photos, editorial apologies and corrections, etc. Display is made up of several characteristics of the style, both elementary (contrast, proportions) , as well as more complex ( characteristics drawing).

On fig. 4 it can be seen that in the days of metal typesetting, the font pattern of different sizes did vary according to the above rules. This once again confirms that the new is just a well-forgotten old.

In Western European typography, based on the Latin alphabet, the question is deeply developed. Evolved typefaces(and only they can bring commercial success to the author) not only contain text and heading styles, but often include options specifically for typing in small size. Which Latin fonts are best suited for this purpose According to Barrett: Amplitude(developer Font Bureau), Bell Centennial(Bitstream) format(Berthold) Frutiger(Linotype) Georgia(Microsoft) Griffith Gothic(Font Bureau), Gulliver(Gerard Unger) Gulliver CPA(Gerard Unger) Neue Helvetica(Linotype) Lucida Fax(Bigelow & Holmes), Lucida Sans(Bigelow and Holmes) Nimrod(monotype), Poynter Agate(Font Bureau), Swift(Gerard Unger) Verdana(Microsoft) Vesta(Gerard Unger) Weidemann(ITC).

It is a pity that most of the list of fonts do not have adequate Cyrillic versions. One of the nice exceptions Verdana. Created for Microsoft by one of the best type designers of our time, Matthew Carter, the OpenType font was designed to support many languages, including Russian. Cyrillic fonts, even those designed by the best foreign authors, often turn out to be not very successful and alien to the Russian graphic tradition, but the drawing Verdana does not cause complaints even among our most biased connoisseurs of type art. Wide proportions Verdana characteristic of American text fonts. Yes, and Microsoft fonts were developed as screen fonts: this is actually one thing, the solution of the same problem guarantees good visibility in small size. All of the above applies equally to Matthew Carter's second typeface, made for Microsoft, George; although Verdana as a grotesque is still preferable. Insofar as Verdana and Georgia is present in almost any computer running Windows, you can assume that the simplest solution for small text is always at your fingertips.

Now let's try to compose full list we need Cyrillic fonts. Like all design advice, this opinion is undeniable but, hopefully, useful. Looking through the font catalogs and keeping in mind the formulated criteria, we can recommend the following Cyrillic typefaces and styles for typing in small size.

Size 8, 7: Bannikovskaya, Verdana, Georgia, ITC Charter, Bitstream Cooper, ITC Garamon, Octava, Swift, Times(different versions) Melior(in the Cyrillic version Zapf Elliptical 711), Bell Gotik, ITC Franklin Gotik(except for narrow styles), FreeSet, Accident-Grotesk(Gothic 725), Syntax(Humanist 531), Meta, Pragmatics(except for extra light and extra bold weights), Janus.

Size 6, 5: Bannikovskaya, Verdana, Georgia, ITC Charter, ITC Garamon, Octava, Swift, Melior, FreeSet, Syntax, Meta, Pragmatics(except for extra light and extra bold weights).

Size 4, 3: Verdana, FreeSet Normal, FreeSet Bold, Pragmatic Medium, Pragmatic Bold.

Rules for good typography

Note the regularity: from a developed typeface for small text, as a rule, it is advisable to choose bold and bold styles. And it is better not to use the selection of text fragments in a bolder font in a small size. It is desirable either to do without accidents at all, or to use italics, italics or small caps.

In addition to font selection, text typed in small size is improved simple rules good typography. Small font does not forgive mistakes: incorrectly chosen leading, inappropriately narrow or wide columns, not to mention such unoriginal design tricks as red text on a black background or lined textures. If in a regular text it simply impairs readability, then you can’t make out a small one at all. But the main thing, on the advice of Master Barrett, with which you should always start working on the layout of small text, is to try to convince the customer to still give you at least a little more space. Really, wouldn't it be better to make the information shorter in exchange for a guarantee that the whole text will actually be read.

However, sometimes the customer deliberately resorts to small print, because he is not interested in the text being read. It is easy to guess to which clauses of contracts, contracts, all kinds of obligations and guarantees this applies. It is not difficult to fulfill such a requirement, it is enough to know the rules for the layout of small text and do the opposite. Tobacco companies would probably really like the notorious inscription "Ministry of Health warns", made in light narrow Bodoni in size no more than 7. Fortunately, here the law guards not only health, but also the rules of good typography.

Literature:

1. Jean François Porchez: Fonts Don "t Come From Nothing. - Report at the ATypI-2005 conference.
2. Mark Barratt: No Room! No room! - Report at the conference ATypI-2005.