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tymaster50

Suspended
Original poster
Oct 3, 2012
2,833
58
Oregon
It's easy to read for me, maybe it's the white iPhone making things easier or something but I read about people complaining the font is illegible. I wear glasses so maybe I don't have the best judgement of legibility.
 
It's easy to read for me, maybe it's the white iPhone making things easier or something but I read about people complaining the font is illegible. I wear glasses so maybe I don't have the best judgement of legibility.

Nope. It's just you ONLY hear from those with not-so-good eyesight - the complainers always shout the loudest :)
 
Nope. It's just you ONLY hear from those with not-so-good eyesight - the complainers always shout the loudest :)

One guy said he was 22 and had perfect vision and it hurt him to read.

I don't have an iPhone anymore, so I am not sure how tough it is on there, but it doesn't look that good on the iPad. For whatever reason it feels "unsettling" to use, and frankly, iOS 7 just sort of makes me like the iPad a lot less. Of course, it's still unfinished so I am reserving my final judgement, but it is worrisome. It's a bad looking OS in a lot of ways so far. Almost bewildering choices.
 
One guy said he was 22 and had perfect vision and it hurt him to read.

I don't have an iPhone anymore, so I am not sure how tough it is on there, but it doesn't look that good on the iPad. For whatever reason it feels "unsettling" to use, and frankly, iOS 7 just sort of makes me like the iPad a lot less. Of course, it's still unfinished so I am reserving my final judgement, but it is worrisome. It's a bad looking OS in a lot of ways so far. Almost bewildering choices.

Put it this way - if noone else had mentioned it, I doubt it would have been an issue. Basic psychology. There's no way to disprove this, since they already have mentioned it, therefore you perceive it more.
 
It's easy to read for me, maybe it's the white iPhone making things easier or something but I read about people complaining the font is illegible. I wear glasses so maybe I don't have the best judgement of legibility.

It is a little helpful to make the text adjustments in settings...general...text size and accessibility.
 
It's easy to read for me, maybe it's the white iPhone making things easier or something but I read about people complaining the font is illegible. I wear glasses so maybe I don't have the best judgement of legibility.

I am 36 and i can say that although i like some of the features of IOS 7. The fonts/typeface is hard to read though. Maybe it is cause i am older. I dunno. I have been debating getting an android phone as it is cause it has a bigger screen. (To make it easier to read) The fonts and stuff don't exactly make it easier on my eyes. Between the screen size and fonts i have a hard time.
 
I find some of it harder to read like the homescreen font but notification center is a massive improvement in legibility. The notifications themselves are also easier to read as the font seems larger and the notification box itself is double height so you can read more info. I'm 31 with 20/10.
 
It is a little helpful to make the text adjustments in settings...general...text size and accessibility.

Have you tried those settings yourself?

When I tried them, they only change the text size of app content. UI text, notification center text, and home screen text don't change.
 
I never had an issue with reading the font... but I've got 20/20 vision... sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo yeah.
My post was pointless.
 
Font sized increased

Apparently they have replaced the font with one that is easier to see in the newest beta.

Apple is listening.
 
Apparently they have replaced the font with one that is easier to see in the newest beta.

Apple is listening.

Apple is now using Helvetica Neue Regular instead of Helvetica Neue Ultra Light from the previous releases. The ultra light font is still being used in some apps, but not as system font.
 
I loved the older font. Looked so much nicer than what they shipped with Beta 3. Hopefully they'll figure something a little more aesthetically appealing out before GM.
 
I had no problem reading the old font (albeit being a young pup at 17) and I'm really disappointed to see it go. The thicker loading bar in Safari looks especially ugly.
 
Ultimately we'll have to wait and see, but I rather suspect you will be able to adjust the font to be lighter (i.e. Helvetica Neu Light, used in beta 1 & 2) in the final version, perhaps in a tucked-away place like Settings > Accessibility.

iOS 7's powerful—and fantastic, from what I've seen and read—new TextKit framework makes it very easy to handle this sort of adjustment systemwide.

I rather liked the look of Neu Light as well (though haven't installed it yet, and experienced on a day to day level, so I don't have a strong opinion on this), but IMO the more legible option is better default choice.
 
When I tried them, they only change the text size of app content. UI text, notification center text, and home screen text don't change.

Just installed beta 3, now notification center text does get bigger when you select bigger text size! Thank god! (Or thank Jony, as the case may be!)
 
I wear glasses and I have FARm perfect vision (I am near-sighted though). I'm 16, and the fonts were pretty easy to read with and without my glasses.

My mom is in her 50s and also has the same vision issues as me, and the fonts weren't HARD for her to read, but she did have to look more closely to see it clearly on Beta 1 and 2.

When I showed her Beta 3 she had very little issue reading anything.

Personally, I'm hoping that by the GM they add during the initial setup an option to control the boldness of the font, because I liked the thinner font slightly more.
 
The new beta font change is not as pretty but it's much easier on the eyes. Style is important but so is usability.

Apple will probably need to make some other practical changes, hopefully leaving the majority of users satisfied.
 
Personally I like beta 1&2's font. They are definitely gorgeous. But this update does yield improved readability. It's just it looks kinda "fat" horizontally, which is kinda ugly, especially in the Message app. Would be better if they just go back to ios 6 font as the thickness is the problem. Or, provide an option in setting to choose system font from Helvetica Neue Light and Helvetica Neue (regular). Hope the final version will find a solution to balance the legibility and elegancy.
 
I greatly preferred the beta 1&2 font. The beta 3 font is too thick, too bold... It just looks too big to the point where it's kind of distracting. I wish I could switch back to the Light font as it looked so much better.

I'm even considering filing it as a bug but not sure how to word it yet.
 
I personally don't find it hard to read and I have pretty poor vision. I don't wear my glasses all that often, but I do just fine reading. I actually prefer my font really small so I always had my font size the smallest as possible. But it's kind of annoying that they changed the font :(. I don't understand why they couldn't just implement a system-wide font change option. It doesn't have to include everything under the sun, but the option between the light/bold would do, and I'm only suggesting this because people said that the font sizes from beta 1 and 2 don't work on all apps. This is one thing I don't understand - instead of not letting customers choose what they want to look at based on their personal preferences and eyesight, they could give us at least 2 choices.
 
Beta 3 font has more of an iOS feel to it that the Windows 8-ish old version.
 
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