How can I change my Outlook.com inbox font color into black?

Anonymous
2013-03-19T12:11:59+00:00

Original post: Just had my old Hotmail transformed to the new Outlook. Who are the (removed by Moderator) who decided that light grey type is easier to read than black? Is there any way to change that color on my screen?

These 60-year-old eyes find it hard to read the light grey type that y'all apparently think makes you look cool. Utility is more important to to me  than "cool". Can I change it to black on my screen?

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Settings

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2014-09-02T14:01:29+00:00

... who decided that light grey type is easier to read than black? Is there any way to change that color on my screen?

This is an old question which was never satisfactorily answered despite the markings on some of the posts. It still attracts attention, possibly because it's been marked as answered, so here's a different response:

This sort of problem is best tackled by making style adjustments in the browser, to override the styles dictated by the web page's designers. I only ever use Internet Explorer, and this is how I make the text in Outlook.com's message list both bigger and blacker without affecting anything else much.

1.   Copy the text in this box and paste it into a new Notepad document:

.t_lnk a, .t_lnk a:link, .t_elnk, .t_qtc,.t_qtc:hover,.t_qtc:visited,.mlRd .t_estc, .t_qtci, .mlUnsel .t_cag.nc:hover 

{font-size: 14px !important; color:#000 !important;}

.mlUnrd.t_sel div, .mlRd.t_sel div, .mlUnrd.t_sel span, .mlRd.t_sel span, .mlUnrd.t_sel a, .mlUnrd.t_sel .Fm a, .mlRd.t_sel a, .mlUnrd.t_sel .DtB a, .mlRd.t_sel .DtB a

{color: #FFF !important}

2.   Click File > Save As. In the Save as type box, select All files (*.*), then in the File name box type

      ol-black.css

3.   Select a suitable place to save the file, e.g. in your Documents folder.  

4.   Open Internet Explorer and go to your inbox at http://mail.live.com

      The message list will probably look something like this:

5.   Click the Internet Explorer settings cog in the top right-hand corner of the window

      (not the identical outlook.com one below it). Select Internet options.

6.   Click the Accessibility button on the General tab.

7.   Select Format documents using my style sheet and click Browse.

8.   Navigate to the file you saved earlier, select it and click Open.

9.   Click OK twice. With any luck, your message list will now look something like this:

The CSS file can be fine-tuned if necessary. Does this help any of you?

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Anonymous
2013-04-08T05:05:58+00:00

Hi Everyone,

I can see how important it is to all of you to be able to change the font settings in the new interface. Your level of dissatisfaction of not being able to change the font settings of your Outlook.com emails is completely justified. We appreciate your time in sharing your thoughts and opinions while we are working to fine tune your Outlook.com experience.

If you want this feature to be available to the product, please send us a feature request on this link.

If you need additional assistacnce, please let us know.

Thank you,

Alix Xedjhidee

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-03-29T14:22:10+00:00

    My eyes are only 57 but the gray is causing eye fatigue, it is a strain because it is difficult to read against the white. I will switch to yahoo if they can't make the text black.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-03-29T08:50:37+00:00

    I agree completely!  Microsoft Outlook is discriminating against older people by using this grey font color!  It is a well known fact that as eyes age, they lose the ability to see contrast.  Grey font color is very, very difficult to read.  We need black font color!   Microsoft obviously does not care if older people are able to read their email!  Come on, Microsoft ... give older people some respect!  Allow us to read our email!

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-03-23T02:18:06+00:00

    Hi Randell Jay,

    Sorry for the delayed response and for the trouble that the font color of Outlook has brought you.

    I understand that you are having difficulty reading your emails because the emails text are gray in color.

    Please be informed that you cannot change the color of the text in Outlook.com screen because it is the design of Outlook by default. The only thing that you can change is the color of the Toolbar (located at the top of Outlook.com page) and the color of the text of an unread message.

    There is also a workaround available to change some of the color of the font of your email messages. To do that, follow these steps:

    1. Tick the box beside the email you want to read.
    2. Click Reply located at the Outlook toolbar.
    3. Hover your mouse to the email body and left click onto it.
    4. Press Ctrl + A
    5. Click the Text color button located just below the subject line
    6. Pick the desired color

    You may also post a feedback to our product team as consideration for a future release on changing the font color of whole Outlook inbox.

    If you need further assistance, feel free to post back

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