Geek Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 <div class="KonaBody"><p><img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/annoying-instant-message-text1.jpg" alt="annoying-instant-message-text" title="annoying-instant-message-text" width="614" height="294" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-12618" /></p> <p>We all have that person (or ten) on our buddy lists that insist on having their IM text formatted in stupendously obnoxious ways. Maybe it’s just using tiny font sizes, but sometimes it’s a full fledged assault on your eyes with bright pink size 26 Comic Sans font clashing against a neon yellow background in a way that makes your eyes want to bleed. The culprit of this is often <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2010/12/22/can-your-mac-do-this/">Windows</a> IM clients and their accompanying themes, but given how easy it is to customize the fonts of nearly any messaging client there’s no single source to blame.</p> <p>If you’re like me, you hate this stuff, so what should you do? Set iChat to automatically reformat all incoming instant messages! You can set all messages to be a uniform font, size, color, and background, guaranteeing that you’ll be able to keep a simple and easy to read instant message conversation despite whatever disaster is lurking on the other users UI end. </p> <p>Here’s how to do this: <span id="more-12611"></span></p> <h2 style="font-size:1.3em;">Reformat Appearance of Incoming Messages in iChat</h2> <ul> <li>From iChat, open Preferences (under the iChat menu)</li> <li>Click on the “Messages” tab</li> <li>Click the checkbox next to “Reformat incoming messages” and set an eye-friendly senders background and font color</li> </ul> <p><img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/ichat-reformat-incoming-messages.jpg" alt="ichat-reformat-incoming-messages" title="ichat-reformat-incoming-messages" width="558" height="374" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-12614" /></p> <ul> <li>Now click on “Set font” and choose an neutral font (I use Helvetica 12)</li> <li>Close Preferences</li> </ul> <p>Changes take effect immediately so you can test out what other fonts look like. I’d recommend something easy to read for sanities sake.</p> <p>If you enjoyed this tip, check out some more <a href="http://osxdaily.com/tag/ichat/">iChat tips and tricks</a>.</p> </div> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Pnl6RJLsD42az0V_VD3f0b7K8PI/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Pnl6RJLsD42az0V_VD3f0b7K8PI/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Pnl6RJLsD42az0V_VD3f0b7K8PI/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Pnl6RJLsD42az0V_VD3f0b7K8PI/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=NNkOcj7T_t8:gDL7XKl1P30:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=NNkOcj7T_t8:gDL7XKl1P30:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=NNkOcj7T_t8:gDL7XKl1P30:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=NNkOcj7T_t8:gDL7XKl1P30:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=NNkOcj7T_t8:gDL7XKl1P30:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=NNkOcj7T_t8:gDL7XKl1P30:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=NNkOcj7T_t8:gDL7XKl1P30:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/osxdaily/~4/NNkOcj7T_t8" height="1" width="1"/> View the full article
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