Increasing text size

[LadyCrimson]

So, I'm getting "old." Increasingly I find the tiny default font size on most forums to be somewhat hard to read - it's not that they're blurry, it's more that it's too small so I squint a lot as if this will magically make the letters bigger, and easily lose my spot in "walls of text."

 

I know I can use browser settings to set default font sizes, but with all the formatted and script-heavy websites these days, this often means the formatting becomes all messed up and sometimes even unusable (buttons disappear, column spacing goes nuts, for example).

 

Is there a way ... or a program ... to magnify the text without altering all the formatting?

[Gorth]

Apart from those funny style sheet override things for Firefox, the only thing I know of is the "zoom" function (Ctrl +). The latter is probably not what you are looking (handy though when you got a 30" screen and people keep using miniscule text).

 

For the former, I found a number of options by googling firefox stylesheet edit. That of course only works if you use FIrefox as browser.

[Gfted1]

In addition to the Zoom feature built into the browser (IE anyway), there is also:

 

Control panel--> Appearance and Personalization--> Display

 

You should then see the options of Smaller (100%), Medium (125%) and Larger (150%).

[LadyCrimson]

Yeah, the zoom function does the same thing with messing up formatting. :/ I do use Firefox, so I'll do a search on that, thanks.

...it also helps me a little, personally, to override color formatting, since I find black text on grey easier on the eyes than white on dark. But that also has the negative of messing up a lot of formatting/appearance things.

 

@Gfted - I thought that setting only really affected the desktop itself...shortcut icon/menu text etc. I'll check it.

 

Edit: I guess if all else fails I can get super high magnifying reading glasses. (it's not just forums either...news sites, everything).

2nd edit: yup, the Display setting just makes menu texts (like your bookmarks list) bigger. Text within a website stays the same.

Edited September 30, 2012 by LadyCrimson

[Spider]

The Zoom function shouldn't mess with formatting (ctrl+), what it does these days is just take the page and enlarge everything on it. Like a magnifying glass. So since everything gets enlarged, formatting will be ok for a vast majority of sites.

 

it didn't use to be that way, so if you have a old firefox, it'll just make the text larger, but in newer versions it does.

[LadyCrimson]

I think I'm still on FF 12. I avoid updating too often because every new version I tend to like a little bit less.

But now that you said that, I checked and it looks like it had "zoom text only" on by default.....turned that off and it seems to work now. So...yay! I think this will work then. If you zoom it too huge you can still lose some stuff and it makes some graphics look terrible, but doesn't mess w/the formatting. I can see again! Thanks.

[Gorgon]

Get glasses. If you have them already, get another sight test. Squinting will just lead to headaces, especially while reading. And you will still be doing that despite increasing the font. Just not as much.

[Gorgon]

My glasses look really daft because my right eye has a massive correction and my left only a minor one. Point being that appart from looking less goofy there is no gain from not using the correct strenght on your glasses. You don't postpone deterioration, that's a myth.

[Humanoid]

Glasses make displays generally smaller though - should have been obvious really but it never occurred to me until I did some relatively recent research into buying a new TV, in terms of considering distance-to-size optimisation.

 

 

Aside, I always end up magnifying my Firefox text size unintentionally, because of the Ctrl-mousewheel shortcut. This will happen without fail at least a few times a week...

 

P.S. A typical modern 27" monitor will have a greater pixels-per-inch count than any other mainstream screen size either smaller or bigger.

[LadyCrimson]

Being near-sighted, at least with books, I always take the glasses off...they do make text a bit smaller and I dislike it. Right now tho I have the oddball issue where with my glasses on, I can see close-up fine (don't need bifocals...yet), but with my contacts in, I need reading glasses for fine print. It's kinda weird.

 

But reading glasses don't work well with a pc monitor since it's not book-close from my face. The monitor is in the inbetween zone of close up and far away, for my vision, and trying to use reading glasses with the monitor gives me a headache.Actually, reading glasses just give me a headache... Like I said, it's not that the text is blurry. It's that it's too small for comfortable reading when two feet away.

[Gorgon]

Sure. It's possible that it's something that an optician could dial in better for a more comfortable 2' zone though.

[Gorgon]

Going somewhat off topic :It's interesting, I find my reading speed increased dramatically after I stared using my smartphone. It's so compact that I don't jump back in the text to get my bearings anymore.

[Amentep]

I just screwed up my size settings on my browser because I began playing with the zoom feature while reading this thread. Now I can't remember what size I'd had it on and they all look slightly wrong. Thanks a lot!

Edited October 3, 2012 by Amentep

[Gfted1]

If it helps, my zoom is just defaulted to 100%.

[LadyCrimson]

I just screwed up my size settings on my browser because I began playing with the zoom feature while reading this thread. Now I can't remember what size I'd had it on and they all look slightly wrong. Thanks a lot!

I think there's a Reset option under View/Zoom ... well, on Firefox anyway.

[Gorth]

Ctrl 0 (zero) does it in Firefox.

[Amentep]

yeah, I fixed it, but first I needed to assign blame.

[Kingu]

You can also just turn down the resolution of your monitor, or use GPU Scaling. This will make everything larger. It wont be in your lcd's native resolution, but it should still appear clear enough for daily use. Plus, if you cant read now and you have to squint, some less than perfect text isnt going to bother you, since the letters probably appear a bit fuzzy anyway from squinting.