How do I increase Big Sur system font size?

A call to Apple support and a really simple configuration fix. Instead of focusing on preferences - accessibility - display ; go to preferences - displays - display and resolution. You can tick scaled and increase the resolution which really helps. You don't lose much at all in terms of sharpness - almost imperceptible, but you gain a lot in terms of system fonts. For those struggling with this... worth a try. Apparently I was not the only person whom she dealt with asking about the same issue. I am hoping Apple captures this systematically and we will soon see 11.01.00 release with more universally accessible system font sizes.

The only thing that works is to change the resolution of your monitor. Go to Display in Settings. Click Scaled. You'll see five thumbnails that illustrate how the size of the system text changes when you click on them. Then just choose the one you like.

Just got a new MacBook Pro with BigSur and had to figure this out myself. I wanted MORE than just the menu bar larger. Here is how to do it....

1) System Preferences

2) Displays

3) In the "Resolution" section click the "Scaled" option.

4) That will clearly present some options for how big you want your text size.

Hope this helps other old folks that could use that larger text like me! :-)

System Preferences --> Display --> click "Scaled" --> click on the square showing "larger text" (versus "more space").

In System Preferences, go to Accessibility --> Display and you can increase the size of the menu bar. That helped me a lot.

Stan in London has the answer, but it is in English. In American..... go to System Preferences > Displays>. In "Resolution:" there are two choices. "Default for Display" is selected by, well, default. Click the button below "Scaled" which opens a box with 5 choices. Not the slider you would hope for, but works to increase size.

Yes that did not work for me either but if you go to System Preferences - Display - you will see screen resolution and increase that one size and it makes a difference

Babs, system preferences, display, look for resolution on the right side - clock scaled. move it once to the left (larger font). Instantly bigger

Really puzzled are you sure you have made the adjustments in Systems Preferences that I used? I doubt even a work computer reverts to a default configuration when you reboot. I have had work-based Windows systems that push a standard configuration and I did not have the admin rights to permanently change this; but I am not sure that Mac OS works that way. It should save your user driven preferences. Let me copy and paste just to be sure that you have made the right adjustment - you should a very big difference in system font. System Preferences - Display - you will see screen resolution and increase that one size and it makes a difference. Good luck

Here is something I did to help me make the font legible after the Big Sur upgrade on my 11" MacBook Air...

I changed the resolution settings from 1360 x 768 to the lower 1280 x 720. For some reason that fixed my problem with the miniscule font. I did it December 12, 2020, and I have not had problems since then.

I have found that using Dark Mode with white text against black is easier for me to read.   That and Reducing transparency and Increasing Contrast in the System/Accessibility/Display/Display preference pane does help me considerably.  I also reduced the screen resolution one step in the System/Displays/Display preference pane. This is what I get in the Finder:

Stan in London wrote: "...Fingers crossed Apple monitors this..."

Let Apple know directly:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html

...and email the Accessibility team: accessibility@apple.com.

Source: How to contact Apple for accessibility support

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I was messing around with things in Accessability and a box came up that said something like, "To make the font menu larger please log out" huh? What did I touch? Mind you the fonts do not seem larger but seem a bit fatter. Maybe it's just that I'm on my good old 1920 x 1200 screen? 24 inch which really makes things bigger. Nah! The menu fonts are definitely blacker. It must be the contrast or the differentiate settings below. Everything is less grey and more black. On my 1200 deep monitor the sidebar fonts are so much bolder they even seem fuzzy with good eyes. But easy to read.

try this and let me know. (I do realize others have mentioned these things already somewhere in this mess)

In display settings inside "ACCESSIBILITY" not in system prefs.

Display button

Invert colors - off

reduce motion - on

increase contrast - on ( I think this is what made a difference)

reduce transparency - on

differentiate color - on (this also could have been it)

A bit of a fix for me: I changed a few settings that made it a bit easier to read. In Accessibility, I have reduce motion, increase contrast, reduce transparency and differentiate without color. Large menu bar and display contrast on normal. Still hoping for a fix though. Closed sticky window Title Bar text are REALLY BAD, so bad it is obvious Apple missed this one. Check that one out.

Change the screen resolution to 1280