I am concerned for how tiny the text will be on most apps. with the new 5K screen

[misho73]

I just received my late 2013 27 inch imac earlier this month (maxed ver.). luckily apple gave me the chance to return it up till next week. So I am seriously thinking to return this one and get the new 5k.
The problem that mostly annoyed me with the current one (as my first mac ever) was the text size in most of the apps. I managed to enlarge font size of the content in most of the apps but not the interface itself (including the OS X). I spend most of the time on lightroom 5 and the text in the menus look so tiny. I had to wear reading glasses to deal with it. I wonder if this will be even smaller with the new 5k screen or will they manage somehow to keep the font size readable?
Any thoughts?

 

[mikeboss]

font sizes will be identical as they are now. but they will look super sharp and crisp on the 5K LCDisplay.

 

[DotCom2]

This is my concern as well.
I will be new to the iMac starting with this newly announced Retina iMac but and concerned about how to make the fonts large enough for aging eyes.

 

[misho73]

This is my concern as well.
I will be new to the iMac starting with this newly announced Retina iMac but and concerned about how to make the fonts large enough for aging eyes.

If you are coming from a PC background like me you will suffer indeed. but somehow you get used to it after a while

 

[HDJulie]

If you are coming from a PC background like me you will suffer indeed. but somehow you get used to it after a while

How do you suffer -- there's no way to make the font larger? My 73-year old mother will go from a PC to the Retina iMac so this statements concerns me.

 

[misho73]

How do you suffer -- there's no way to make the font larger? My 73-year old mother will go from a PC to the Retina iMac so this statements concerns me.

you should be concerned. unfortunately all you can enlarge is the content size (like browser or email content) but not the system menus or apps menus
text is super tiny and small. I know it will be sharper with the retina but still small. people who really suffer from this they are forced to reduce the resolution. which misses the whole point of having a super hi res screen

 

[EnderTW]

shake head.

It will look, in terms of font size etc as the 27 inch iMac currently out, but will be 4x sharper due to what OSX/iOS does with scaling.

It's going to look glorious.

Now if you can't handle the current 27 iMac text size (go to the apple store) you can change the resolution to be lower, but might result in some fuzziness, this is true for current and 5k iMac

 

[WilliamG]

shake head.

It will look, in terms of font size etc as the 27 inch iMac currently out, but will be 4x sharper due to what OSX/iOS does with scaling.

It's going to look glorious.

Now if you can't handle the current 27 iMac text size (go to the apple store) you can change the resolution to be lower, but might result in some fuzziness, this is true for current and 5k iMac

^ ^

This. It will look exactly the same. I'm quoting myself from when people were freaking out with the new iPhone 6 Plus resolution and how everything was going to be tiny.

NO!

Look at the bottom two rows of this image. One is from the non-Retina iPhone, and the other is from the Retina iPhone (if you can't figure out which is which, don't waste your money on the 5K iMac!) But see? Same size, more detail. That's what will happen with the 27" 5K iMac.

 

[misho73]

^ ^

This. It will look exactly the same. I'm quoting myself from when people were freaking out with the new iPhone 6 Plus resolution and how everything was going to be tiny.

NO!

Look at the bottom two rows of this image. One is non-Retina, and one is Retina. See? Same size, more detail. That's what will happen with the 27" 5K iMac.

Image

Thanks a million. that was such a relief

 

[WilliamG]

Double-post deleted!

 

[WilliamG]

Thanks a million. that was such a relief

No problem. Hopefully that allays your fears!

 

[ElectronGuru]

You should try out HiDPI mode on your current imac:

1) install Display Menu from the App Store

2) click on the new monitor icon in the menu bar

3) set the screen to half resolution (1280x720)

4) marvel at how big everything is

5) realize the 5k model is doing the same thing, just with more/tighter pixels

 

[definitive]

here's a visual. left box is normal display, right box is retina:

a retina display uses more pixels to display the same image, so it can create a rounder or a smoother edge of an object (ex: text) while maintaining the same size.

 

[metanoiapi]

I have the same concerns. Not being able to adjust DPI in OSX is a worry. So, if i can't read or see anything it will promptly go back into the box and have a nice RMA label on the outside of it.

That simple, really.

 

[jediDev]

I have the same concerns. Not being able to adjust DPI in OSX is a worry. So, if i can't read or see anything it will promptly go back into the box and have a nice RMA label on the outside of it.

That simple, really.

I'm sure there will be a mode to scale it to retina-ish 1920x1080

 

[theSeb]

Guys, the new iMac will run natively at the same resolution as always so nothing is going to change in terms of the UI size. It will work exactly the same as it does on the retina MBP.