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+--- Thread: Actual Text Size in 17in vs. 20 in iMac - Strategies to Get Bigger Text on an iMac (/showthread.php?tid=30847)
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Actual Text Size in 17in vs. 20 in iMac - Strategies to Get Bigger Text on an iMac - Sam* - 04-02-2007
I'm shopping for a new iMac for my elderly, but fairly computer savvy, parents with tired eyes.
Set to native screen resolution, on which of the 17 inch or 20 inch iMacs does the text actually appear bigger?
I'm also interested in general for making the screens more readable for elderly eyes. What my mom does now on her iMac G4 is lower the screen resolution which has its own set of problems.
I just played around with changing font sizes in Safari, hoping I could leave her screen at native resolution but figure out ways in the individual applications to make the text bigger. The problem is, there are a lot of web sites that seem to override those user setting preferences (like the Apple.com web site for one!).
The need my parents have is for the font to appear 20 - 50% bigger, not like 300% or anything like that.
Ideas are welcome.
Thanks,
Sam*
Re: Actual Text Size in 17in vs. 20 in iMac - Strategies to Get Bigger Text on an iMac - karsen - 04-02-2007
Try:
Apple Menu > System Preferences > Universal Access
There you'll find useful settings for visually impaired users.
Re: Actual Text Size in 17in vs. 20 in iMac - Strategies to Get Bigger Text on an iMac - jardster - 04-02-2007
Have you tried playing with Zoom in the Universal Access system preference?
grrr.... too slow
Re: Actual Text Size in 17in vs. 20 in iMac - Strategies to Get Bigger Text on an iMac - iaJim - 04-02-2007
Seems that there is a lot of interest in this lately. I've been wondering the same thing. Since we all have LCD monitors now, we'd better start to figure this out.
Re: Actual Text Size in 17in vs. 20 in iMac - Strategies to Get Bigger Text on an iMac - robfilms - 04-02-2007
[quote karsen]Try:
Apple Menu > System Preferences > Universal Access
There you'll find useful settings for visually impaired users.
how does zoom actually work?
anyone on this board w/real world experience using zoom?
thanks in advance
be well
rob
Re: Actual Text Size in 17in vs. 20 in iMac - Strategies to Get Bigger Text on an iMac - karsen - 04-02-2007
Think of Zoom as a huge screen inside of your computer. Turn it on, and zoom in to the desired level. When you move your mouse the screen scrolls to keep it centered. Very nice to enlarge images and text on fixed resolution monitors.
Re: Actual Text Size in 17in vs. 20 in iMac - Strategies to Get Bigger Text on an iMac - anonymouse1 - 04-02-2007
The issue is dots per square inch. You need to measure the two screens, find out the number of square inches for each. Then, in a separate calculation, multiply the height by width of the two resolutions (1440 x 900 for the 17", 1680 x 1050 for the 20").
The formula then is resolution divided by screen size. That will give you the number of dots per square inch on that machine. The machine with the smaller number of dots per square inch has bigger dots.
Re: Actual Text Size in 17in vs. 20 in iMac - Strategies to Get Bigger Text on an iMac - jdc - 04-02-2007
[quote robfilms][quote karsen]Try:
Apple Menu > System Preferences > Universal Access
There you'll find useful settings for visually impaired users. how does zoom actually work?
anyone on this board w/real world experience using zoom?
thanks in advance
be well
rob
turn it on and try it?
Re: Actual Text Size in 17in vs. 20 in iMac - Strategies to Get Bigger Text on an iMac - mediumcool - 04-02-2007
17 has resolution of 1440x900
20 has resolution of 1680x1050
Without doing any square root calcs, it looks as though the pixels on the 17 will be a teensy bit larger. Working at other resolutions will result in lower sharpness.
Re: Actual Text Size in 17in vs. 20 in iMac - Strategies to Get Bigger Text on an iMac - Ken Sp. - 04-02-2007
I had this issue with a friend, and I just adjusted the display settings to a non-native setting on an iMac 17.
The fonts are not smooth, but the screen is much better for him.
I think we set it to 640 X 480. It stays during wake from sleep, but on restart it must be restored (unless anyone here has a tip for that). Just select "show displays in menu bar" in System preferences>Display, and it can be changed from there.