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#1 wish for Safari on iOS: text size!

P

Photomax

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 26, 2007
137
0
Seattle
So far I love my iPad. Had it about a weak and am really enjoying it.

My major complaint is the text size in Safari. I find that the full screen text is too small. I dislike zooming the whole screen just to read text better: you then have to scroll all over the place. What I would like is the ability to control the text size independently of the screen zoom. The OS X Safari gives us this control so why not the iOS version?

I have tried using the Atomic browser. It has some text control, but if you increase the text size one level from the default size the increase his huge. The text size control needs to be more refined...

As far as I know there is no simple way to add control over the text size in Safari (iOS) ???
 
Double tap in the paragraph or text you want bigger and it will zoom that area automatically without needing to pinch.
 
I don't have my ipad with me right now, so I can't say for sure. But I think iCabMobile (different browser) lets you do this..? :)
 
The double tapping thing does help.

I would still prefer to have some better control over the text size while maintaining screen size. Sometimes when you have a whole list of links together its hard to tap the correct one with your finger. Having to zoom in and out and perform double taps etc seems like a slight hassle that could be negated by a user preference built in with the browser.

The system lets you choose 20pt text for example in Contacts, Mail and Notes, but not in Safari.
 
Let's be honest, the iPad is just a bit too small.

Who would ever select a 10" screen for their home computer to browse the web? No-one would.

For decades now, 14" was the starting size of most colour monitors.

14" is also the size of most starting laptop's

There's nothing wrong with 10" and of course, if you are coming from a tiny iPhone screen, then sure 10" is going to seem large, but for relaxed home use 10" is a very small screen.
 
Its more/less annoying depending on the site you are on of course.

I design sites for a living. These days most sites are built with modern web standards and a layout that easily accommodates user text sizes without zooming the site or "breaking" the design.

A future version of iOS Safari that would allow you to increase/decrease text size in two point increments would be a great feature, especially given the size of the iPad screen. I did leave a message with the Apple feedback system.
 
Found this before, help with some sites...

- create a bookmark
- make its address equal to the following;

javascript:for(i=0;i%3Cdocument.getElementsByTagName%20('*').length;i++)void(document.getElementsByTagName('*'%20)%5Bi%5D.style.fontSize='14pt');

change 14pt to the font size you prefer

After loading a website select this bookmark and it will increase text size. It works better on some sites that other's, depends on how the particular web sites is setup
 
Photomax said:
My major complaint is the text size in Safari. I find that the full screen text is too small. I dislike zooming the whole screen just to read text better: ...
As far as I know there is no simple way to add control over the text size in Safari (iOS) ???
Click to expand...

What you are looking for is called "reflow" and I agree that it would be a great feature to have on Safari. Android browser does it very well (when you double tap, the screen width is modified to fit the current font zoom level) and i definitely hope Apple adds this function.

For now I find the Mercury browser does it decently well. There is a free ad-supported version in the app store so give it a try. You can assign a gesture to increase and decrease the font size as well,which is handy.
 
I totally agree, the text size is far to small for some of us. I left feedback..let them know we aren't all spring chickens anymore, and that it was causing me some eyestrain. Please fix this asap! Thanks :D
 
The iCab browser has a module that allows one to increase text size on any web page. This could be a very useful feature for those that need it.
 
For the sake of completeness, I guess I should mention that Atomic Browser has a great feature that lets you increase the default font size -- and has the ability to remember it so that it always uses the new font size whenever you return to that same site.

Extremely useful. I often wonder why other 3rd party browsers don't offer a similar feature.
 
Photomax said:
The double tapping thing does help.

I would still prefer to have some better control over the text size while maintaining screen size. Sometimes when you have a whole list of links together its hard to tap the correct one with your finger. Having to zoom in and out and perform double taps etc seems like a slight hassle that could be negated by a user preference built in with the browser.

The system lets you choose 20pt text for example in Contacts, Mail and Notes, but not in Safari.
Click to expand...

Mercury let's you adjust the font size for a page and then remembers it every time you pull up that page in the future... Very handy and yes I AM over 40 years old :eek:
 
Piggie said:
Let's be honest, the iPad is just a bit too small.

Who would ever select a 10" screen for their home computer to browse the web? No-one would.

For decades now, 14" was the starting size of most colour monitors.

14" is also the size of most starting laptop's

There's nothing wrong with 10" and of course, if you are coming from a tiny iPhone screen, then sure 10" is going to seem large, but for relaxed home use 10" is a very small screen.
Click to expand...

Yeah, except you've never needed to hold any previous monitors.
 

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Photomax said:
So far I love my iPad. Had it about a weak and am really enjoying it.

My major complaint is the text size in Safari. I find that the full screen text is too small. I dislike zooming the whole screen just to read text better: you then have to scroll all over the place. What I would like is the ability to control the text size independently of the screen zoom. The OS X Safari gives us this control so why not the iOS version?
Click to expand...

I agree, it's quite annoying.

For now, I use Readability's free service to fix the font sizes.
https://www.readability.com/

Works well with webpages with large chunk of main text. Unfortunately, doesn't work with forums, like Macrumors. :(
 
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