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Ibolskool

macrumors newbie
Jul 23, 2010
8
0
Apple Feedback

I just sent a message to Apple Feedback for global font size adjustment. I encourage all to do so as well.

:apple:
 

NLCShank

macrumors newbie
Jul 3, 2011
1
0
I use Firefox, rather than Safari. I've only been able to change the font within my browser, which is really what mattered to me anyway, by going to Preferences < Content < Fonts & Colors < Advanced < Minimum Font Size 18. It would sure be nice if I could enlarge the font for everything else.

Before today I'd been using Tiger, and there must have been a way to enlarge it using that, because I installed Snow Leopard today and everything got smaller. Maybe in Lion it'll be an option.
 

lugesm

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2007
572
9
Question:

Why is it so easy (Resolution Independence) in Windows and so hard in OSX ? ? ?

Is there any real coding reason, or is this just some freakish problem in the minds of the OSX programmers ?

Having just bought a BEAUTIFUL 27" iMac . . . the system text is so small that I have to strain to see all of it . . . and I have 20/15 vision. What the H. . . . . ?
 

yakapo

macrumors 6502
Jul 11, 2008
254
235
Macbook air

I'm looking at getting the new 11"? Macbook air in a few weeks. I have a hard time reading small text. Has anyone tried one? How big is the text?
 

macbook123

macrumors 68000
Feb 11, 2006
1,869
85
So is global system font adjustment not coming with Lion????

I remember people saying it would...
 

ahmak

macrumors newbie
Jul 3, 2011
12
0
I've been interested in buying MBA and font resizing is the first thing that comes into my mind due to the high resolution of the 13 inch model.
Google showed me this thread and it sounds like there is no clean solution of the problem under Mac OS, which is a dealbreaker for me. I am currently using 12 inch screen, scaled at 1.4 factor system wide under Win7 and i just can't get back using the default size of fonts etc. under high resolution. In 13MBA it is even higher than my current one.
Is it possible with so many MBA's sold worldwide noone to complain about this issue? Or MBA's are bought only from teenagers?
Does Lion fix that?
 

iThinkergoiMac

macrumors 68030
Jan 20, 2010
2,664
4
Terra
Having just bought a BEAUTIFUL 27" iMac . . . the system text is so small that I have to strain to see all of it . . . and I have 20/15 vision. What the H. . . . . ?

My vision isn't quite 20/15 (but it's better than 20/20) and I don't have to strain to see all of the text on a 27" iMac. You might want to get your eyes checked.
 

yakapo

macrumors 6502
Jul 11, 2008
254
235
Well I'm really close to ordering the new Macbook air. I took a look at the old version in the store today. Most of the text on the 13" model is fairly legible. The calendar app is too small - particularly while viewing a full month at once. Also while changing some system settings the font was incredibly small. The salesman was trying to sell me on the fact that the 13" model has the same res as the 15" macbook. I told him that's not a selling point for me.

I'm still on the fence. I wish I could play with the laptop for a week and see if I can actually read the fonts without too much eyestrain. I'm afraid I'm going to spend $1300 and then find out it that I have to just install Win7.

In my opinion this new macbook air really gives you a good value for your money. If only they fixed this one nagging problem.
 

philipjj61

macrumors newbie
If you hold Command Option and scroll the wheel you get incremental zoom. Just got a 27" Quad and this is good for now. You need to make sure this hasn't been changed in system preferences/mouse settings for it to work, but a blessing, I also have centralize pointer activated which is a little tricky to operate but I'm sure if I can push my pet dinosaur out the way for long enough, I'll get used to it.
Phil.
 

wanderlust204

macrumors newbie
Jul 31, 2011
2
0
Tiny Font on 2011 MBP: NO FONT CONTROL UPDATE IN LION :(

Hi Everyone,

I'm new here but just thought I'd put my 2 cents in. Last year I purchased the 13' MBP with Snow Leopard and loved it - EXCEPT that the font was somewhat difficult to see. (I wear glasses, but don't have terrible vision).

Since I'm on the computer a lot for my home business (including working on the design, layout and weekly article & poll updates to my website) and for my hobby/passion, drawing, I took the leap yesterday and bought the 17' MBP, thinking that for sure the font would be much easier to read. Strangely, the sample ones they had on the sales floor SEEMED to have a normal font, so I felt good about my purchase. Until I got home and found that all of the system fonts are minuscule! They actually seem to be SMALLER than they are on my 13", which I didn't think was possible! My boyfriend and I did a side-by-side comparison and it does seem that Mac went one or two points down on font size for the new MBP (either that or the giant screen is playing a really good visual trick).

I upgraded to Lion and there's no change at all...The fonts are tiny. I'm appalled. It's so hard to read that I may actually have to take it back, unfortunately. This thing cost a small fortune and I don't think it's too much to ask that I be able to read the screen without getting a headache.

If they'd actually pay attention, I'd suggest to the Mac developers that they spend a little less time on the major bells and whistles and concentrate more on the nuts and bolts of making the user experience more comfortable. I love the new Lion features (and loved Snow Leopard too), but I'd gladly give up some of the extras to be able to read my screen :(.

Buyer beware if you have ANY trouble with teeny fonts. (A call to the tech line was pleasant but no help - the tech suggested I submit a comment b/c he'd talked to so many people with the same problem, but there was nothing he could do to help).
 
Last edited:

wanderlust204

macrumors newbie
Jul 31, 2011
2
0
If you hold Command Option and scroll the wheel you get incremental zoom. Just got a 27" Quad and this is good for now. You need to make sure this hasn't been changed in system preferences/mouse settings for it to work, but a blessing, I also have centralize pointer activated which is a little tricky to operate but I'm sure if I can push my pet dinosaur out the way for long enough, I'll get used to it.
Phil.

That's true, you can do a "Screen Zoom," which is about the only solution for now. Unfortunately, doing this makes the font fuzzy and, if you want to use one of Lion's cool new features, Full Screen Mode, then using Screen Zoom is just about useless, since you end up "zooming" half of the page off of the screen. You then have to scroll around to view the parts of the page you need. It's just extra steps that are really a pain. If you could just easily control the size of the font that's comfortable for you, you wouldn't have to take all of these extra steps. That's probably the ONE AND ONLY place I feel Windows has trumped Mac - user control.
 

lugesm

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2007
572
9
This problem is REALLY not like the Apple that we have grown to know and love.

Someone in Apple management is asleep at the wheel. :mad:
 

yakapo

macrumors 6502
Jul 11, 2008
254
235
solution to all small font issues

I've got the perfect solution.

http://www.readingglasses.com

I'm only half-way joking. I'm going to get some reading glasses -basically my prescription +1 so I can use the mac air. Maybe I could market them as apple glasses and charge 10x the price. j/k. I really think the new air gives you the best bang/buck in it's class.
 

yakapo

macrumors 6502
Jul 11, 2008
254
235
Well I'm typing this from my new macbook air 13". Before I bought this computer I went and got some new "computer" glasses. Basically it's my prescription with a +1. Believe it or not, some parts are still hard to read. I probably needed them anyway.

There's a few things you can make bigger...

Itunes - in preferences you can set the font size bigger
calendar - same
email - same
safari - command +

However the "system report" is ridiculously tiny. Everything else is fine.
 

anotherpaul

macrumors newbie
Aug 19, 2011
29
4
Just checking for a way to change system fonts. Now believe that Jobs will say the same tripe as regarding the iphone antenna problems; the APPLE WAY is to lower the resolution & if you are not doing that, you are doing it wrong.

For those using Firefox, get the "nosquint" addon as it does help for viewing webpages & is configurable at will. Still doesn't do anything for the system fonts that are used for the menu & toolbar or even the location bar & tabs. Windows allowed the change of system fonts for that & some dialogue boxes; still some "programmers" don't want to do things right & the default tiny system fonts do occur in windows.
 

Sitalco

macrumors newbie
Sep 14, 2011
5
0
WorldWide
System font size ridiculusly tiny!

guys this is extremely annoying, just got the all new i27" but can't work with this lil tiny system fonts, really sux, hope some one up there in cupertino will wake up very soon :mad:

Mr. Jobs please fix it before leaving so we all can fully enjoy your beautiful products :confused:
 

lugesm

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2007
572
9
guys this is extremely annoying, just got the all new i27" but can't work with this lil tiny system fonts, really sux, hope some one up there in cupertino will wake up very soon :mad:

Mr. Jobs please fix it before leaving so we all can fully enjoy your beautiful products :confused:

Sadly, you will eventually learn to accept this. As much as I do NOT like Windows, I must admit that Microsoft does not have this problem. Never did. I can't understand why Apple has turned a blind eye to the problem.
 

jordandw

macrumors newbie
Sep 19, 2011
1
0
Font Size

guys this is extremely annoying, just got the all new i27" but can't work with this lil tiny system fonts, really sux, hope some one up there in cupertino will wake up very soon :mad:

Mr. Jobs please fix it before leaving so we all can fully enjoy your beautiful products :confused:

WHY THE F, isn't this fixed yet:mad::mad::mad:? I just bought a 27" imac and it didn't even begin to occur to me that increasing and decreasing font sizes, icons, etc wouldn't be an option on an $1800 block of anodized aluminum. I like the all-in-one design, but friggin' a, it's going back. And don't get all lippy with me. I know what I want and they don't have it.

My next question is, WHY, WHY, WHY doesn't a company make a computer like an iMac designed for Windows. If Microsoft would have designed a computer along with their software (like Apple), a long time ago, they would be worth 4 times what Apple is today.

Sigh...oh well, it was a nice try.
 

lugesm

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2007
572
9
Why does Apple not fix this problem ?

Possibly:

1. The techs to whom we complain are not passing the message upwards.
2. Apple does not believe it is a REAL problem and we are just a bunch of whiners.
3. Someone in management is asleep at the wheel.
4. There is some (unresolvable) technical issue that no one in Apple has explained.

You can add to this list . . . but, bottom line, it appears that this problem will NOT ever be resolved.
 

Efrog

macrumors newbie
Oct 6, 2011
1
0
Upgrade to OS X Version 10.6.8 shrunk my system font size etc

Hello

I have an iMac; I am its main user and "administrator". My eyesight is not great so I have, for years, had it set up to permanently show as many things as possible larger than the default size. In July I installed OS X Version 10.6.8 - and virtually everything that was larger went smaller. The login box, text and icons on the desktop, dialogue boxes, icons in the dock, the dashboard, text in Finder, text and images in web pages in Safari, the toolbar, tab bar, bookmarks bar and status bar were all affected. Only the pointer (arrow) stayed large. I installed the Version 10.6.8 updater; doing so had, it seems, no effect.

The computer's secondary user never adjusted the default settings and is unaffected.

I do not use Time Machine and did not back anything up before I installed Version 10.6.8.

I still use 10.6.8.

My previous version of OSX was, I think, 10.6.7.

I have followed advice in this thread by (1) giving my feedback to Apple and (2) installing a Safari extension listed under Productivity called "All pages zoom", which sets the size of the font globally. (All you need do is press Cmd++ to where you like it, and it stays set throughout.) However I cannot remember how I made things larger in the first place and I cannot make the system font or anything else outside Safari larger again.

I wonder whether uninstalling OS X v 10.6.8 would (1) be possible and (2) help me to restore my old settings.

I will, I anticipate, return at the weekend.
 

dgreen97

macrumors newbie
Dec 21, 2011
5
0
I just sent feedback to apple too about implementing global font size changes for the OS. I think its ridiculous this far along in the game that this feature still hasn't been implemented. It's been implemented almost from day 1 on windows and they make something that should be simple extremely difficult. I hope apple is listening to our feedback that the fonts on the OS are just too small to read. There needs to be an update released very soon for lion that fixes this problem. Instead of them focusing on new features constantly, they should fix things like this that are currently broken with the OS before moving forward. I shouldn't have to resort to 3rd party tools to increase font size in mac osx lion and even some of those don't work. It's ridiculous
 

yakapo

macrumors 6502
Jul 11, 2008
254
235
I bought computer glasses when I bought my first mac - a mac air. Even with my glasses on, the font size on "about this mac" or "System Pref" are ridiculously tiny.

From what I understand they are about to release Macbooks with double the resolution. Now they will be forced to increase the menu font size and icon size etc. Up until now they have just been making everything smaller and smaller. I pity anyone using the 27" imac.

----------

Why does Apple not fix this problem ?

Possibly:

1. The techs to whom we complain are not passing the message upwards.
2. Apple does not believe it is a REAL problem and we are just a bunch of whiners.
3. Someone in management is asleep at the wheel.
4. There is some (unresolvable) technical issue that no one in Apple has explained.

You can add to this list . . . but, bottom line, it appears that this problem will NOT ever be resolved.

I think Jobs had the same motto as Henry Ford. "you can have any color you want as long as it's black". Basically, if you don't like the font size go buy a windows pc or use bootcamp.

Too bad b/c osx is so much faster than win7. Even on my mac air with bootcamp - win7 just seems less snappy than osx.
 

NewMacUser2012

macrumors newbie
Jan 1, 2012
7
0
Unhappy 27" iMac owner

I recently made the switch from pc's and this small font issue has really been killing me. I spent a lot of money to get this beautiful looking 27" iMac and i can barely read the font. Other than Safari which i can largely change to suit my needs, the system fonts, menus, pop up notifications, and apps like iTunes, App store, iCal etc. all have unbelievably tiny fonts that CAN NOT BE CHANGED!

I have tried the work arounds described in this post and in other posts i've read and none have worked. I basically have purchased a $1700 internet workstation with a beautiful screen.

I simply can not believe that setting global fonts and custom DPI settings are not possible in Mac OS. I have been doing that with ease on Windows for over 10 years. I really want to get to know OS X because I have every belief that it's a fantastic OS... but if I can't use the computer for more than 10 minutes without massive eye strain and a headache.. how useful will it be?

I wrote to Apple about this but i'm not hopeful. These forum posts go back to 2005! Everyone keeps saying "wait for the next OS release". It's 2012 and we're still waiting.

The only thing i can do is use the zoom feature to zoom in on all the menus, dialogue boxes and apps i can't see. However as most of you know that makes the text blurry.

I don't want to go back to Win 7 but I may have to. Really, really disappointed with Apple for not fixing this. Either they can't or they don't want to. I don't get it. I also don't get why more people don't complain. The fonts are just ludicrously small on this 27" screen. I am not going to run 800x600 on a 27" cuz Apple can't seem to understand that not everyone has hawk-eye vision.
 
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