idea Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps in ArcGIS StoryMaps Ideas

Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

AspenN — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 16:16:04 GMT

In the new ArcGIS Story Maps builder, there is no way to customize font size. The only way to change font sizes are to change to the preset sizes based on type of text (paragraph, heading, etc.). We are looking at putting together story maps for various presentations. With a specific organization style guide to adhere to, we need the capability to adjust the text to the sizes as indicated in the style guide. It would be helpful to be able to highlight text in any area of the story map builder (be that a sidecar, caption, guided tour, slideshow, paragraph, etc.) and adjust the font size of that highlighted text (much like the text colors and emphasis like bold or italics can be adjusted in that way). Another possibility for adjustable font sizes would be to include the option to change the preset sizes of the type of texts in the new themes builder so we could create a template to use in all presentations where the paragraph text is the size we need for paragraphs, heading text is the size we need for headings, etc.

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps - Status changed to: Under Consideration

OwenGeo — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 16:22:32 GMT

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

StaceMaples — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 21:39:49 GMT

This is an accessibility issue and should be implemented.

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

OwenGeo — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 19:52:08 GMT

@StaceMaples -- Thanks for your feedback on this idea!

This idea is still under consideration by our product team, but it would be helpful if you could please provide more detail on the accessibility issues you mentioned.

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

DanielColeGriggs — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 03:13:13 GMT

In my particular case- I would like to have smaller text adjacent to an inserted photo. Having the ability to resize the text would provide context. While auto-changing the font & allowing bold/italics to differentiate is nice, being able to (in my case) lower the font size would contextually link the text with the photo. Thanks @OwenGeo

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

OwenGeo — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 12:57:21 GMT

@DanielColeGriggs -- Thanks for providing some additional information about this idea. Could the information you're referring to go in the image caption? The caption text is smaller than paragraph text and is positioned close to the image.

If you have something else in mind, would you be able to create a rough mockup of where the text would be positioned and how it would look so we can better understand what you're trying to accomplish?

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

DanielColeGriggs — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 20:27:54 GMT

Thanks for the response. I should've mentioned I'm working in the Ridgeline theme. The image caption is indeed a workaround but for continuity, I've been reserving that for image credits. I was looking to have a quote text adjacent to the image. The quote is a bit lengthy & is related to the image but given that it seems I can only have quote text larger/below the image, it feels separate from the image.

Here's a quick mockup:

Currently- this is what it looks like

TEXT

IMAGE

img credit

"QUOTE TEXT"

What I would like to accomplish

TEXT

"QUOTE TEXT" IMAGE

img credit

Hope this helps & thanks again @OwenGeo for the response.

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

OwenGeo — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 20:57:52 GMT

@DanielColeGriggs -- OK, I see thanks.

FYI, there is a dedicated space for attribution where you can add image credits. It's in the image options (click the gear) and the information you enter appears when the reader hovers over a small (i) icon that's added to the top corner of the image.

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

DanielColeGriggs — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 05:08:16 GMT

That's great to know thanks @OwenGeo!

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

Teresa_Blader — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 19:02:17 GMT

I wonder if it's possible to have a button that's available to the public (like "translation" is in Hub) where a user can automatically pick their font size based on their own accessibility needs. Sometimes changing the browser settings can be a road block for the public. On my county's web page they provide this:

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

MichelleMount — Tue, 02 May 2023 19:23:46 GMT

I am having this same issue. I am still using Classic Storymaps because of the inability to increase the font size the new Storymap. We use storymap to make presentations for public meetings. Participants love the interactive style of storymap. The problem is font size. We have individuals with vision disabilities and in the new Storymap the font size makes it unreadable for those with viual disabilities in our community. Because of this issue and ADA rules we will have to find a new product to use when you no longer support Classic Storymap. As a municipality we are required to meet the disability needs of those in our community.

I would appreciate any innovations or changes that would help with this issue.

Chelle Mount

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

OwenGeo — Wed, 03 May 2023 13:14:00 GMT

@MichelleMount, @AspenN, and others: Thanks for providing this feedback about font sizes.

While we do hear that many people use ArcGIS StoryMaps to create stories to use as presentations, we do not actually recommend this. ArcGIS StoryMaps is a tool that is designed to create long-form stories intended to be read by an individual person on their desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone browser. As such, it is optimized for this use case and not for presentations. There are a few significant ways that stories and presentations differ...

Stories are responsive, which means the content rearranges to fit the screen when you view it on different device sizes. This is the exact opposite of what people typically expect from a presentation. For a presentation, you want the content to scale and have the same layout and relative font/content sizes regardless of what screen you view it on.

Also, as you mentioned, the typical font sizes are very different. Fonts that are appropriate for a presentation format are way too big for someone who wants to comfortably read a story on their laptop or phone, and story fonts are often too small for presentations.

The last item I'd mention is that the primary mode of navigation for a story is vertical scrolling, which is not optimal for content that you're presenting to others. One person manually scrolling content on a large screen for others to view/read is disorienting for an audience and can often make viewers dizzy, which may not be the best way to get your point across! 😕

This being said, we understand that despite all these drawbacks, there are reasons people want to or like to use stories as presentation tools: the engaging content layouts, the ability to integrate 2D or 3D maps from your ArcGIS organization, etc.

Stay tuned as we'll have some exciting news on this front coming in the second half of this year...

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

cbp-geus — Mon, 08 May 2023 07:39:24 GMT

Hi @OwenGeo,

Thank you for your point of view on this.

We have been quite successful in presenting responsive ArcGIS StoryMaps to a larger audience in auditoriums on a large screens. It has been of great help because we can adapt the dynamic content, scale and display to the story we want to present. It gives a whole new dimension and way of being able to present ourGIS projects to the audience.

We don't see the vertical scrolling an issue. As a matter of fact, it gives a slow natural sliding of the presentation, even when going backwards, especially when using the Sidecar. We even had a presentation where the autoplay function worked quite well. This feature, however, could be improved a bit by allowing a specific set time duration of the autoplay.

In addition, it works really well when the audience subsequently receives a QR code for the URL to the presentation, so that they can afterwards see the Story Map presentation on their own mobile, tablet or laptop.

We are really excited for the StoryMaps and are looking forward for the upcoming news later of this year.

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

MichaelAgbozo — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 14:07:51 GMT

Yes, it will be really helpful if the new Storymap templates have adjustable/fully customizable fonts. I'm using the slate theme for a project and needing a font size much smaller than the current title font size (but bigger than the paragraph font size). If fonts are fully customizable in the next Storymap releases, it'll be very much applauded....we need hover-over tooltip too in the Storymap templates.

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

OwenGeo — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 14:30:20 GMT

> we need hover-over tooltip too in the Storymap templates.

@MichaelAgbozo - I would suggest you submit a separate idea for this request.

Adjustable font sizes are something we are working on, so stay tuned.

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps - Status changed to: In Product Plan

OwenGeo — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 14:30:30 GMT

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

MichaelAgbozo — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 16:34:59 GMT

Can we also have hover-over tooltip in the Storymap templates without having to go back to creating Media Maps first, as https://support.esri.com/en-us/knowledge-base/how-to-enable-hover-popups-in-arcgis-storymaps-000021047 suggests?

@OwenGeo, thank you.

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps - Status changed to: Implemented

OwenGeo — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 01:55:41 GMT

This feature is now available. See Blog: What's new in ArcGIS StoryMaps (January 2025) for details.

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

JanetSilb_Spike — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 17:18:07 GMT

I would also love to see capability. I have a StoryMap Collection in which the title text gets split in tablet view because I cannot adjust the font size or format the text differently.

Re: Adjustable Font Size in the new ArcGIS Story Maps

JanetSilb_Spike — Wed, 07 May 2025 19:20:43 GMT

I'd like to kudo this idea. In my case, I need to adjust the font, or even word breaks in the Title of a StoryMap Collection for different screen sizes. It all looks great on the desktop, laptop, & mobile views, but on the tablet view one of my title words gets weirdly hyphenated and I don't have any way to adjust this. I'm using a custom theme & have adjusted font sizes & types in the theme so I think I really need to adjust the formatting of individual words.