Is there any way in God's green earth to make the traffic light dots BIGGER?

[thebart]

All the UI text is too small if you don't have 20/20 vision. I'm talking about the text in dialog boxes, menu, settings, tool type, etc. What's worse, all apps follow this base line text size. Only way to make it bigger is to run in lower resolution, which is stupid

I can't stand the attitude of people who as long as something works for them think they can tell other people to f*** off and use something else

 

[turbineseaplane]

Agree with most everything I'm seeing in here

I know it's fashionable to dump all over Windows, but I personally find that it's been updated and improved much better than macOS to handle all the text scaling, multiple monitor and high DPI preferences and configurations one might want in the modern computing era.

 

[redheeler]

Agree with most everything I'm seeing in here

I know it's fashionable to dump all over Windows, but I personally find that it's been updated and improved much better than macOS to handle all the text scaling, multiple monitor and high DPI preferences and configurations one might want in the modern computing era.

Apple provides text size options but they seem to work better on iOS than MacOS. There’s also no bold text option like on iOS for some reason.

 

[Boyd01]

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I would support having more ways for users to customize things like this on MacOS. But not sure that I understand the complaint here. Just did a quick comparison by lining up MacOS Mountain Lion (left) Monterey (center) and Windows 10 (right) windows simultaneously on the same monitor using Parallels.

To my eyes, it appears that the "traffic light" buttons are a little larger on Monterey than they were on Mountain Lion and not all that much smaller (although closer together) than Windows. Sorry, have not used Ventura or Sonoma. The font size on Windows actually looks smaller but maybe I changed some settings?

Anyway, thought it would be interesting to do a quick comparison where everything is showing on the same screen at the same time. I really don't have any problems with these interface issues on either the Mac or Windows. For me, operating systems are just tools for getting a job done. I have plenty of likes/dislikes, but try not to dwell on them.

I'm using a 2018 Mini with a 32 inch QHD (2560x1440) BenQ DesignView Monitor running at native resolution with no scaling. When I got this computer, there was a lot of discussion about display scaling causing performance issues with the UHD 630 graphics chip on the 2018 Mini, so I got a screen that would give me reasonable sized text at native resolution. I was happy with the ancient 23" Apple Cinema display I'd used before which is 100 dpi, so I got this screen which is around 94 dpi (a bit larger text, which I like). FWIW, I'm 75 years old and have always worn glasses.

So, this makes me wonder whether the complaints here have more to do with the size/resolution of the monitors you are using (such as the built-in screen on a laptop or an iMac)? I considered getting an iMac instead of a Mini back in 2020, but went with the Mini primarily because I wanted to make my own screen choice.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I guess I don't really understand the point of disagreeing with a user who's expressing a desire to have the ability to adjust the UI to better suit their needs and preferences.

Shouldn't we all be wanting that?

A computer OS, and particularly how the UI elements are rendered, should be far more flexible than macOS is in this regard

I've long wished for the Menu Bar to be slightly size scalable for instance. It also drives me mad that we can't customize the Finder windows a lot more (the Sidebar in particular) -- without a ton of hacks or an entirely 3rd party replacement.

I could go on for days, but it's all falling on deaf ears in Cupertino, where they are seemingly far more interested in figuring out the next subscription offering.

 

[cogzero]

Should you want to adopt the nuclear option, you could program such a macro keyboard for your needs:

 

[maxoakland]

If it was a "proper" refresh, they would have fixed this. It speaks to inaccessibility.

Good article. This sums up my argument:

"In Mac OS X, the red/yellow/green buttons in window title bars are much smaller and closely-spaced compared to other UI elements like toolbar buttons.

Making UI elements small makes them harder to click, especially at higher resolutions on smaller screens, when using non-mouse (trackpad) interfaces, or for elderly/young/disabled users."

Also, they really do not even have to make them actually bigger. Just increase the "active" area around them like Windows did with their - _ X in the upper right of each window. A no brainer, Apple!

I think you might be right that there should be an option to make them bigger for accessibility BUT as a default, the size they are is good and they shouldn’t be bigger

I bet you’d get used to their size really quickly if you used Mac OS daily

 

[chown33]

I bet you’d get used to their size really quickly if you used Mac OS daily

Or use the keystrokes.

I never use the red button, always cmd-W. This is so instinctive to me that when I happen to use a Windows box, I invariably press the control & W keys when I want to close windows. Same for cmd-Q to quit an app. Sadly, neither ctrl-W nor ctrl-Q has the desired effect on Windows.

The yellow button is something else I almost never use. That's mostly because I don't usually need to "park" a window in the Dock. If I need to hide something, it's usually the entire app, so cmd-H is my go-to. If I do want to minimize a window, I usually double-click in the title bar. It's a bigger vertical target, and it's much wider, so less distance to move. I thought title-bar double-click was in System Settings (Preferences), but I can't find it, so maybe I'm misremembering, and it's always available.

The main thing I use the green button for is to size the window to "appropriate size", rather than full-screen. That needs the OPTION modifier key held down when clicking it. In apps with a "Window" menu, this is often called "Zoom", as distinct from Full Screen.

Holding the OPTION modifier key when clicking the red or yellow button means "apply to all windows of this app". I.e. Close All Windows or Minimize All Windows. You can see this in apps that have a "Window" menu. Click once to drop the menu down, then press & release the OPTION modifer, and watch the menu titles change. This little "show me what it means" trick works on other menus, and usually other modifier keys like SHIFT or CONTROL.

 

[MauiPa]

Clearly you’re entitled to your viewpoint. I have no problem with the “issue” you bring up. It all works fine. Personally, I upgraded to Mac in 2012, I was fed up with the hundreds of security fixes on Windows. I was fed up with the memory leak issues causing crashes in everything even Excel. Finally I was fed up with “upgrades” which were perplexingly complex and time consuming.

Windows vs Mac is more of a preference than a performance issue. I know which I prefer, and am completely OK understanding that not everyone has the same preferences

 

[turbineseaplane]

Or use the keystrokes.

A good point and further support for more flexibility

I'd probably turn the "stoplight" off completely if I could as I don't use it for anything

(native keystroke shortcuts + BetterTouchTool for years and years now)

 

[mihighil]

In the Accessibility section of System Settings (or Preferences) you can enable Zoom to toggle between 2 zoom levels using keyboard shortcuts. Then you'd:
- press a key to toggle Zoom on
- move over the red/yellow/green button you want
- click it
- press the key again to toggle Zoom off

Zoom in on what’s onscreen on Mac

On your Mac, use your keyboard, mouse, or trackpad to zoom in on part of the screen.

support.apple.com

Change Zoom settings for accessibility on Mac

On your Mac, set options to make items on the screen appear larger.

support.apple.com

Simple and elegant…the apple way.

 

[Algr]

There is scaling to account for higher resolution. With proper scaling, macOS can look on 6K screen same as it looked on 1024x768 screen.

But do people actually want this? The point of a larger screen is usually to see more windows and info at once. Making buttons and interface bigger is wanted sometimes, but not as often.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Simple and elegant…the apple way.

("System Settings" has entered the chat...)

 

[Lyrics23]

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I would support having more ways for users to customize things like this on MacOS. But not sure that I understand the complaint here. Just did a quick comparison by lining up MacOS Mountain Lion (left) Monterey (center) and Windows 10 (right) windows simultaneously on the same monitor using Parallels.

View attachment 2396762

To my eyes, it appears that the "traffic light" buttons are a little larger on Monterey than they were on Mountain Lion and not all that much smaller (although closer together) than Windows. Sorry, have not used Ventura or Sonoma. The font size on Windows actually looks smaller but maybe I changed some settings?

Anyway, thought it would be interesting to do a quick comparison where everything is showing on the same screen at the same time. I really don't have any problems with these interface issues on either the Mac or Windows. For me, operating systems are just tools for getting a job done. I have plenty of likes/dislikes, but try not to dwell on them.

I'm using a 2018 Mini with a 32 inch QHD (2560x1440) BenQ DesignView Monitor running at native resolution with no scaling. When I got this computer, there was a lot of discussion about display scaling causing performance issues with the UHD 630 graphics chip on the 2018 Mini, so I got a screen that would give me reasonable sized text at native resolution. I was happy with the ancient 23" Apple Cinema display I'd used before which is 100 dpi, so I got this screen which is around 94 dpi (a bit larger text, which I like). FWIW, I'm 75 years old and have always worn glasses.

So, this makes me wonder whether the complaints here have more to do with the size/resolution of the monitors you are using (such as the built-in screen on a laptop or an iMac)? I considered getting an iMac instead of a Mini back in 2020, but went with the Mini primarily because I wanted to make my own screen choice.

The clickable area on Windows is significantly larger than on Mac. I’ve edited your screenshot to align the interface to show how that alone is very different:

and then annotated it the best I can from memory on mobile to show how the actual clickable areas also differ:

You could probably fit all 3 Mac buttons into the clickable area of just one of the Windows buttons.

 

[MisterSavage]

In the Accessibility section of System Settings (or Preferences) you can enable Zoom to toggle between 2 zoom levels using keyboard shortcuts. Then you'd:
- press a key to toggle Zoom on
- move over the red/yellow/green button you want
- click it
- press the key again to toggle Zoom off

That's a good tip. Another option is to turn on hover text. That way you're just holding a key to reveal what's below the pointer.

All the UI text is too small if you don't have 20/20 vision. I'm talking about the text in dialog boxes, menu, settings, tool type, etc. What's worse, all apps follow this base line text size. Only way to make it bigger is to run in lower resolution, which is stupid

Xcode is absolutely terrible about this. It feels like no one over 25 years old works on it. The search field is microscopic.

 

[Cape Dave]

I think you might be right that there should be an option to make them bigger for accessibility BUT as a default, the size they are is good and they shouldn’t be bigger

I bet you’d get used to their size really quickly if you used Mac OS daily

Nope. Every time I try to make the switch from Windows it is the micro sized dots that make me switch back, every time. I am a mouse guy, and I hate having to search for those bacteria sized devils every time I want to manage a window. I know about keyboard shortcuts, but my hand is not on the keyboard. It is already on the mouse.

 

[Cape Dave]

The clickable area on Windows is significantly larger than on Mac. I’ve edited your screenshot to align the interface to show how that alone is very different:
View attachment 2396835
and then annotated it the best I can from memory on mobile to show how the actual clickable areas also differ:
View attachment 2396836

You could probably fit all 3 Mac buttons into the clickable area of just one of the Windows buttons.

Thank you! My point precisely!

 

[nathansz]

If you use the keyboard it doesn’t matter how small they are

 

[Boyd01]

I’ve edited your screenshot to align the interface to show how that alone is very different

Thanks. I thought about cropping them something like that, but thought it better to post the complete screenshot and figured someone would probably do as you have. You're right, but it just doesn't bother me - certainly not enough to shout "I CANNOT STAND IT ANYMORE".

But - I get it - and agree it would be nice to have more preferences to customize this kind of thing. For that matter, if they made the buttons bigger and/or spread them farther apart, that would also be fine with me.

It also occurs to me that those of you who are unhappy about this might be using trackpads. I dislike trackpads and have no need for a laptop anymore. But even when a laptop was my primary computer, I always plugged in a mouse (unless at a coffee shop, airport, etc). With the precision of a mouse, I don't think button size or placement matters all that much.

 

[f54da]

Snow leopard used to have larger traffic light icons, and I know that on mavericks it's possible to replace the system assets with those and it works. I think it would still be possible on newer osx versions if you disable SIP and edit the CAR files or something, but I don't know if a premade one exists.

 

[sleeptodream]

Get a high dpi mouse like a gaming mouse and they shouldn’t be hard to hit, on the default screen scaling, IMO. I have a cheap Redragon one and it makes navigating the UI feel effortless

Trying to use a magic mouse can be frustrating, hopefully that’s not what you have

These aren’t nearly as bad as the x’s on ads on iOS where you accidentally click through on the ad 75% of the time lol

 

[nathansz]

Trying to use a magic mouse can be frustrating, hopefully that’s not what you have

Easily the absolute worst mouse

 

[eldho]

Also, make the traffic lights more realistic, arrange them vertically to the right (most of us drive there).

If you make them too realistic you will only be able to use them on green - or orange if you hurry

 

[nathansz]

The clickable area on Windows is significantly larger than on Mac. I’ve edited your screenshot to align the interface to show how that alone is very different:
View attachment 2396835
and then annotated it the best I can from memory on mobile to show how the actual clickable areas also differ:
View attachment 2396836

You could probably fit all 3 Mac buttons into the clickable area of just one of the Windows buttons.

but why are you trying to click the buttons when it's so much easier to just use he keyboard?!?!?

 

[nathansz]

Get a high dpi mouse like a gaming mouse and they shouldn’t be hard to hit, on the default screen scaling, IMO. I have a cheap Redragon one and it makes navigating the UI feel effortless

Trying to use a magic mouse can be frustrating, hopefully that’s not what you have

These aren’t nearly as bad as the x’s on ads on iOS where you accidentally click through on the ad 75% of the time lol

if you have good blockers you will never see ads in iOS (or macOS or linux)