Zooming in on an application-specific level?

[l008com]

Every year, I do my taxes in TurboTax. Every year, these ol' eyes get worse and worse. And every year, Intuit doesn't update TurboTax to account for the fact that as screens are getting bigger, pixel pitch is getting smaller, so things of a fixed pixel size get smaller and smaller.

In other words, I can't see the friggin tiny type in TurboTax window! There is no "zoom" like there is in nearly every other program.

So there are two options I could use, but both of them are terrible. I could change my screen resolution. Or I could use full screen zoom in accessibility settings. This is a desktop with three monitors and I keep a million things open at once, changing up the screen resolution will really mess things up. The other option, zooming in, is also not ideal. Its a hard feature to use, especially when you are working with multiple windows in multiple programs at once.

So what I really would like is a way to zoom in to a specific window, in a similar way that screen zoom in accessibility works, except on a specific window only, not on the WHOLE screen(s).

This doesn't seem like that hard of a thing to do. I'm not aware of a feature like this native in the OS, but maybe there are some 3rd party utilities that can zoom like this?

 

[MacCheetah3]

Its a hard feature to use, especially when you are working with multiple windows in multiple programs at once.

There will always be compromises, limitations, and challenges. However, you probably just haven’t used it enough to get a good handle on it.

So what I really would like is a way to zoom in to a specific window, in a similar way that screen zoom in accessibility works, except on a specific window only, not on the WHOLE screen(s).

You can’t do it on a per (application) window basis, however, (at least) one of the many system-wide options should do the trick. And there are several that don’t take over the entire display.

Change Zoom settings for accessibility on Mac

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

support.apple.com

Change Zoom advanced options for accessibility on Mac

On your Mac, set advanced options for zooming.

support.apple.com

View a larger version of text you’re reading or typing on Mac

On your Mac, move the pointer over text you’re reading to display a larger version of it. Or display a larger, editable version of text you’re typing.

support.apple.com

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-os-accessibility-and-third-party-monitors.2446429/?post=33651934#post-33651934

* I couldn’t demo the Choose Display option for Full Screen zoom because I utilize Spaces rather than multiple physical displays, monitors.
** Typically, I — to use an older generation term — zip around much faster with flick gestures on the trackpad rather than a more traditional scroll, but I wanted to reduce the possibility of the demo being jarring for those who aren’t accustomed.

 

[l008com]

The mouse over text zoom is kind of useful, ill use that. Not as useful as being able to really zoom the turbotax window but thats an intuit problem really.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Just curious, what resolution are you using? Some displays can be very crisp at non-native resolutions. There are several Dell 4K models that are ideal at 2K...for example. With diminished eyesight, you might consider a newer display. Your eyes will thank you.