Well to make it simple using about:config from the browser (very slow BTW) I just inserted font.minimum-size.x-western in the "Name" and 20 in the "value" box and hit "Set Preference". I walked away for a cup of coffee (did I say slow), came back and found that the font size was now changed on the about:config page to a more readable size. I closed the page and restarted the browser. Now my browser opens and displays text by default at what I used to have to zoom to 120% to achieve. A much better user experience. Previously I had found that 120% was about the max to use before the "fit to width" feature started moving web objects arround...
font.minimum-size.x-western
20
about:config