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
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:
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.
:-(
Posted on Dec 2, 2014 9:39 PM