I have had the same problem and used following workaround:
- End Thunderbird.
- Create a folder “chrome” in your thunderbird user profile folder if it does not exist.
- Create a file called userChrome.css if it does not exist.
- Enter following data into the file:
* {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Sans Serif !important;
font-weight: normal !important;
font-size: 12px !important;
}
You can change font size and used font as you want.