tömell

Q: Yosemite: how to increase menu font size?

Howdy, here's my question: How can I (permanently!) change the size of the menu font used in Yosemite (terminal command, software)?

I installed Yosemite on my Mac Book Pro 15" the day it became available because I liked what I saw here and there previously. In short: I like a lot of things about "Josie", but as a Swiss typographer, and above all as a long time Mac user, I got quite some problems with the menu bar and the menus in this new OS. Helvetica, the new menu font in Yosemite, looks great to my eyes when shining forth from iPhone- or other devices' displays in big sizes.   Also, Helvetica almost always look great (i. e. easy to read) on paper, but every experienced typographer could have told Apple that this typeface doesn't work as a menu font because of it's narrow spacing, which makes it hard to read. The same is true for almost every else Helvetica shows up, esp. in the list views of the finder windows (where at least the font size can be changed). I've experimented with this fonts quite some time ago e g. when designing Filemaker databases, and I always replaced it (often with Lucida!). This, combined with a terribly small font size, makes Jony Ive's (or whoever the unlucky person is) decision a deal breaker when it comes to install or not to install Yosemite on my other Macs.

OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 18, 2014 1:01 PM

Close

Q: Yosemite: how to increase menu font size?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Previous Page 2 of 4 last Next
  • by Nugenpa,

    Nugenpa Nugenpa Nov 23, 2014 4:58 AM in response to tömell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 23, 2014 4:58 AM in response to tömell

    Just want to add my voice that Helvetica Neue is AWFUL. I don't have the best eyesight, but I don't consider myself vision impaired either. Couldn't Apple compromise its self-centered aesthetic principles just a little and give us some ability to increase the size of the menu font? I recognize that their collective adolescent ego is so enormous that they will never change the actual font, but for those of us who have trouble seeing it, the ability to increase the SIZE would be an enormous relief. I have adopted some of the simple fixes for the visually impaired (turning off antialiasing, increasing contrast a bit) but it would be so much easier if we could either increase the system menu font size or, even better, revert (optionally) to the old Lucida Grande font.

     

    This is the kind of stupid design choice that will cause Apple to lose customers.

  • by Jeshyr2,

    Jeshyr2 Jeshyr2 Nov 28, 2014 3:59 AM in response to tömell
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 28, 2014 3:59 AM in response to tömell

    Have any of you tried installing the San Francisco font as per this article:

    http://www.cultofmac.com/303628/add-apple-watchs-custom-font-mac/

     

    Other system fonts which are available include:

    Fira - https://github.com/jenskutilek/FiraSystemFontReplacement

    Any font you like: https://github.com/dtinth/YosemiteSystemFontPatcher

     

    These instructions ARE all pretty much for people comfortable with technical stuff, but as long as you have backups you can't do much harm to anything. If the new system font is ruining your computer experience to the extent where you can't comfortably use the computer, you CAN change it.

     

    Also remember that you can decrease the display resolution to increase the size of everything which will help with visibility.

  • by tömell,

    tömell tömell Dec 2, 2014 11:51 AM in response to Jeshyr2
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 2, 2014 11:51 AM in response to Jeshyr2

    Thanks a lot Jeshyr2 I'm very busy at the time but I'll surely try this out! In the meantime I found a "solution" at least for my MacBook 15" by changing the resolution of the display (but thus loosing real estate of course). Thanks to everybody who came here and posted their sight & tips concerning the new font usage in Yosemite!

  • by MacsSince1984,Solvedanswer

    MacsSince1984 MacsSince1984 Dec 2, 2014 9:39 PM in response to tömell
    Level 1 (90 points)
    Dec 2, 2014 9:39 PM in response to tömell

    To be able to read the screen on my new MBP, I needed to employ many kludges to Yosemite which took hours of googling and experimentation to get right, but I had to give up using Safari entirely because the kludge which reverts the system font back to Lucida Grande:

    https://schreiberstein.co.uk/

    works on the Bookmarks bar in FireFox but not on the Bookmarks bar in Safari. Apparently they hardwired Helvetica Neue into Safari so it’s just plain illegible even though with my regular eyeglasses I am corrected to 20/20 in my good eye and when necessary wear a patch over my bad eye. None of the magnification steps which enlarge the print in the webpage itself have any effect on the Bookmarks bar, which I rely on for navigation via its dropdown menus which I’ve organized over years of use.

     

    Fortunately I am retired, but hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands, of complaints on the ‘net are from working professionals who have been running their businesses or occupations for years on Macs and have a large investment in their Mac equipment and software and are furious because they are squinting to try to read their screens!

     

    So today I ordered a pair of eyeglasses with continuously adjustable lenses just to use for Yosemite. Maybe they will help too.

     

    Apple has done its loyal older longtime Mac users, and its reputation, a great disservice failing to warn us not to install their “upgrade” - Yosemite - in its present incarnation, on non-retina display Macs, even brand new ones like mine. Instead of a warning, we were indiscriminately notified via software that we -should- install it! I had no trouble reading the screen on my 3-4 year old MBP running Mavericks, but now I have been struggling to use and try to enjoy my brand-new MBP with non-Retina display! Kind of ridiculous.

    :-(

  • by tömell,

    tömell tömell Dec 2, 2014 10:57 PM in response to MacsSince1984
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 2, 2014 10:57 PM in response to MacsSince1984

    Thank you so much Nathan, you really made my day! I'm using Schreiberstein's patch on my MacBook 15" and I will run it on my iMac in an instant. On the MBP I switched back to a higher resolution (1680x1050) and I can still read the menus when I wear my glasses.

  • by MacsSince1984,Helpful

    MacsSince1984 MacsSince1984 Dec 3, 2014 8:49 AM in response to tömell
    Level 1 (90 points)
    Dec 3, 2014 8:49 AM in response to tömell

    Glad I could help.

     

    Here is a better link to keep up with his versions:   https://github.com/schreiberstein/lucidagrandeyosemite

    I'm using 1.3 now and it seems to be quite stable.

     

    I wish I had written down all the other "adjustments" also known as kludges but I didn't start out thinking that so many would be required, or I would offer to list those too, but you probably found them already as they are options built into the system, unlike the very special one mentioned above. But it seems to me that Yosemite should have included one single button to make all these other adjustments, instead of having to scrounge all through System Preferences, Finder Preferences etc. and some of these options are not even intuitively named.

     

    For example, to mention one, the option to increase the font size in the Finder's sidebar doesn't even mention "font" but if you go to System Preferences/General and use the dropdown menu in "Sidebar Icon Size" it will also change the font size of the entries themselves as well. Don't know why they chose this label for the option as most people want to read the entries in the sidebar and could care less about the icons! I don't even have icons in my Finder's sidebar.


    Best wishes, Nate

  • by MacsSince1984,

    MacsSince1984 MacsSince1984 Dec 3, 2014 10:06 AM in response to tömell
    Level 1 (90 points)
    Dec 3, 2014 10:06 AM in response to tömell

    tömell,

     

    I just heard this back from Schreiberstein about the Safari problem in response to my question to him about it:

     

    • "Thanks for your feedback! Regarding the Safari-issue : It appears to be hardwired. I guess there is nothing we could do about it."


    (That's why I had to abandon Safari - it hurts for me to keep trying to squint to read the Bookmarks' so-called Favorites Bar entries in Safari.)


    Regards, Nate

  • by Olli Pgh,

    Olli Pgh Olli Pgh Dec 4, 2014 12:30 PM in response to MacsSince1984
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 4, 2014 12:30 PM in response to MacsSince1984

    I just bought a 27 inch iMac for my vision impaired dad, who has serious problems reading the default text and icons. I have decreased the screen resolution, which helps some, but there *HAS* to be a way to increase default fonts and sizes globally for all applications. Even crappy windows can do this. After spending nearly 2k on his dream computer my dad is incredibly disappointed and frustrated. Prior to this computer he had been using Windows PC's for over ten years with no issues.

     

    Does anyone know of any after market apps that can do this?

  • by MacsSince1984,

    MacsSince1984 MacsSince1984 Dec 6, 2014 1:01 PM in response to tömell
    Level 1 (90 points)
    Dec 6, 2014 1:01 PM in response to tömell

    tömell.


    If you switch from Safari to FireFox, you can add this Add-On: No-Squint to enlarge the contents of each webpage individually and remember it; and you can add this Add-On: Theme Font & Size Changer to control the size, font and bold the FireFox menubars like Bookmarks, etc.


    Safari does not allow this type of Extension (Add-On).)


    Regards, Nate

  • by MacsSince1984,

    MacsSince1984 MacsSince1984 Dec 6, 2014 1:55 PM in response to MacsSince1984
    Level 1 (90 points)
    Dec 6, 2014 1:55 PM in response to MacsSince1984

    Here is the url for the Theme Font and Size Changer in FireFox:

     

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/theme-font-size-changer/

     

    Nate

  • by tömell,

    tömell tömell Dec 6, 2014 2:19 PM in response to MacsSince1984
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 6, 2014 2:19 PM in response to MacsSince1984

    I'm using Theme Font & Size Changer and No-Squint for Firefox for a long time and their really great, thanks Nathan for mentioning these little big helpers. Specially with No-Squint I couldn't do without, it's part of my daily internet experience!

  • by juliafromsaint louis,

    juliafromsaint louis juliafromsaint louis Dec 20, 2014 9:51 PM in response to tömell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 20, 2014 9:51 PM in response to tömell

    Hi guys, Same problem with MENU TEXT SIZE.   I did have success by going to PREFERENCES, DISPLAY

     

    I now have HUGE TEXT FONT SIZE for my FINDER

     

    Go to:  DISPLAY    Select "SCALED"  rather than Best for Display

     

    1280 x 800 WILL INCREASE TEXT MORE

     

    1024 x 640 WILL GIVE the LARGEST TEXT for FINDER MENU

     

    Hope this solves some of your visual problems.  It has for me.  By the way, I have gleaned some good information from your posts.  Thanks,  Julia from StLouis

  • by connieknonnie,

    connieknonnie connieknonnie Jan 12, 2015 10:08 AM in response to LouL
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 12, 2015 10:08 AM in response to LouL

    I think I've read that Apple doesn't read the user forums. Let's hope that someone is reading the feedback you can do through Pages and Numbers. If there's a similar menu item in Safari I have unearthed it yet. I've long thought that all the alpha and beta testers must be twenty-somethings with no idea how their vision will change over the years—much less that anyone who has other vision issues.

     

    Probably the answer is that more people need to tell Apple what works for different ages and point out that just because we've reached the advanced age of 30+ doesn't mean we no longer use a computer.

  • by Barby Gale,

    Barby Gale Barby Gale Feb 21, 2015 12:46 AM in response to tömell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 21, 2015 12:46 AM in response to tömell

    If you open system preferences in Mac, and click on displays.  You have a choice of Revolution:  "Default for display", and "Scaled."  The default one is the tiny one we are all unable to read.  So click on "Scaled", and then try all the choices until  you find the one you can read.  It solves everything for me.  I can now adjust the other font sizes in my mail program down a bit, as this display resolution "ups" the sizes across the board.  Why on earth this is not more well-publicized and known I have no idea. It certainly solves everything for me.  I can read my menu bars now.  Whew.

  • by tömell,

    tömell tömell Feb 21, 2015 12:57 AM in response to Barby Gale
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 21, 2015 12:57 AM in response to Barby Gale

    Barby Gale, I don't think this is very smart. Of course you can always change the screen resolution (and I assume that's what you're suggesting), but showing bigger pixels means showing less pixels in width and hight, and that's not what we want, isn't it?

    The best solution to my originally posted problem is still the one proposed by Nathan Silverman, but try this only if you're an experienced mac user.

Previous Page 2 of 4 last Next