Actual Text Size in 17in vs. 20 in iMac - Strategies to Get Bigger Text on an iMac

[Dick Moore]

If they are mainly web browsing, just hit shift-command-+ to make the text bigger, go back with command- -. I use this all the time for my tired eyes with very good results. Usually one step up is just right, but some sites, like Ars Technica stories, need two.

[enrico7300]

The newer MS mice assign a button to latch into the Universal Access settings, so when you push the button and roll the scroll wheel, it zooms in to the user defined level of magnification...good for making quick detail inspections, probably not for extended use but it could be useful.

(yeah, sorta gimmicky but occasionally useful)

[john-o]

In Safari prefs, under Advanced, there's a checkbox labelled "never use font sizes smaller than___" Have you tried making that something like 14 or even 18 point? I think that would help tremendously, and appears to work even most everywhere you're dealing with scalable text.

Good luck,
John

[Sam*]

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the Safari -->Advanced choice, "Never use font smaller than...." The big problem there is that many sites bury text in graphics and that won't help there. But may in combination with occassionally changing screen resolution or universal access for those sites while using native resolution but larger font choices as the default.

I appreciate all the participation in this thread. I don't think the big players (Apple etc.) have really put enough thought into this.

Sam*

[RAMd®d]

Well, it's not really Apple's fault.

I don't know what can be done, other than make pixels the size of Legos. Then there is aliasing to contend with.

The key is CRTs. Great looking text at almost any resolution.

Zooming in is still iffy. Some fonts *seem* to enlarge at a slower rate than others. Zoom in on a website and some text gets bigger right away, and some doesn't.

I've got an MS keyboard with a Zoom knob. Works pretty well, with the above limitations. You don't even have to go into Prefs to use it.

But it doesn't work on text embedded in graphics.

A lot of older people don't find non-native LCD resolutions the problem that the rest of us do.

[mediumcool]

I have a lovely Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 19 inch CRT. I don't know what I'll do when it dies (Sony discontinued their Trinitrons long before Mitsubishi stopped making their DiamondTron knockoffs). And I have yet to see an LCD that has the smoothness and tonality of a CRT.