WordPress plugins for font resizing

Here is a survey of font resizer plugins for WordPress. Ability to increase font size can be an important tool to increase accessibility for users with limited visual acuity. Although users can change the font size of a web page through standard browser settings, few people know how to do it. If font resizing is important to your accessibility plan, avoid the use of absolute size (pt) specifications rather than a relative size in the CSS.

You could add a font resizer to a WordPress site by manual coding, but most WordPress users will prefer to use a plugin.

This list includes all WordPress resizers I could locate, sorted into two groups. The first list shows plugins that had “Last Updated” dates in 2012 on the day I did this survey (22 September 2012). I avoid plugins that do not show active development, so I put those into a separate list.

  1. WP Text Resize
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wptextresizecontrols/
    Last Updated: 2012-8-28
    Provides increase, decrease, and reset font size controls for body text on a WordPress site.
  2. Post Font Resizer
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/post-font-resizer/
    Last Updated: 2012-3-14
    A plugin that enables visitors to resize fonts to either larger or smaller sizes.
  3. Enlarge Text
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/enlarge-text/
    Last Updated: 2012-6-30
    A widget that enables visitors to enlarge text.
  4. Zoom
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/zoom-widget/
    Last Updated: 2012-7-6
    Zoom enables site users to resize the predefined areas of the web site. Free version has no options. Paid version ($19.95) has options.
  5. ATbar
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/atbar/
    Last Updated: 2012-9-3
    ATbar is a cross-browser accessibility toolbar that can be added to a user’s browser or alternatively the toolbar launcher can be embedded on a website. This open source tool addresses a range of accessibility issues. Developed by the ECS Accessibility Team at the University of Southampton.

Additional resizing plugins that have not been updated for a long time:

  1. WP-FontResizer
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/font-resizer/
    Last Updated: 2010-5-5
    This plugin allows you to give the visitors of your site the option to change the font size. The plugin acts over jQuery and saves the settings in a cookie. So the visitor see the same font size if they revisit your site.
  2. WP-chgFontSize
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-chgfontsize/
    Last Updated: 2010-5-4
    Allows users to change the font size. Also stores the user selection in a browser cookie.
  3. WP-text-sizer
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-text-sizer/
    Last Updated: 2009-5-8
    Provide visitors to your site the the option of increasing or decreasing the size of text by clicking on an icon which represents larger or smaller text.

Did I miss your favorite WordPress plugin to do font resizing? Leave a comment and let us know about it!

Keywords: Section 508, visual acuity, vision problems, text size, resizing fonts

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