How to deal with tiny little print on the Mac

 

 

I SAID, “HOW DO I DEAL WITH TINY LITTLE PRINT ON THE MAC?! THE SCREEN IS BIGGER THAN BEFORE AT 1920 X 1080 and 23 inches, but it seems the text keeps getting smaller and smaller!"

I have the worst vision I know of. Guys I knew in college swore they were on drugs if they tried on my glasses. My vision only got worse. I’m on another iteration of bifocals and I've forgotten how long I’ve worn them.

If you have terrible visions like I do, have gotten past your vanity to wear a strong and unsightly prescription;

+and still find yourself straining to see the text on screen,here’s what I can recommend. 

 

1. Adjust your programs for a bigger default font size. You’ll want to go to the Preference to adjust the default size. In MarsEdit, the blogging software used to product this blog, I just raised it from Helvetica 12 to Helvetica 18 and my eyes thank me for it.

To access fonts and font sizes in apps following Apple’s coding guidelines, use Command + T in word processing and text editing programs. (In the Finder and Safari, thought, Command + T accesses the tabs on the browser.)

 

In Microsoft Office, you’ll want to use Command + D instead of OS X’s Command + T for adjusting font and font size. When you open a new document, just right-click or control-click on the blank space to access the Font Panel:

 

 

2. Temporary zooming of the screen. If you only need to zoom the screen for limited instances. go to the System Preferences and its very handy Accessiblity pane.

To get to the Accessibility pane, you need to get to System Preferences. You’ll find System Preferences in your Dock as this icon:

 

 

You’ll also find it in your main /Applications folder with that icon.

 

If you can’t find it, go up to the Apple menu in the upper left-hand corner of your screen and click on the Apple icon. That drops down a menu. System Preferences… is one of the choices:

 

So bring up System Preferences and you’ll see a grid of icons for various System Preferences. You want System Preferences:

 

Click on Accessibility and you get this screen (At least I did):

 

As you see, you can toggle options to zoom the screen, zoom in and out, and control the zooming with the scroll wheel on your mouse. You can also use two fingers to slide up and down on your Magic Trackpad to control the zooming. 

 

You have the option to set the zooming as either fullscreen or picture in a  picture. A “loupe” as it were:

 

 

This demonstrates the loupe or “picture within a picture” feature. 

 

Check out other features of the Accessibility preference pane. Apple intended it for disabled people, but we lazy people can also make use of it, too.

What about other features? What if I just want it briefly or want to take a screen shot of just the area in the loupe? Well, that’s the topic for the next post. But right now, I need a walk 1.0. 

 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog