How do I increase Big Sur system font size? I am finding the new menu bar font almost impossible to read.
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.
You are welcome! I know I need the increased size too and you think this info would be easier to find. :-)
Hideous isn't it!
I just upgraded to Big Sure 11.3 - illegible for me
Tancamb wrote: "I just upgraded to Big Sure 11.3 - illegible for me"
Let Apple know here:
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katkramer wrote: "...Perhaps Apple could have different "profile preferences" available..."
In case you're not already aware:
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One readability issue is the finder. Big Sur seems to have changed the sidebar font to grey (rather than black), on a grey background. This is fashionable but user-hostile.
One good option to maintain visibility of the finder sidebar is to increase the sidebar icon size
Go to System Preferences > General > Sidebar Icon Size = Large
It did help my menu bar by increasing resolution so it is ow back to what it used to be but I have a 27 inch iMac. I have not yet updated my old MacBook Air. Fingers crossed Apple monitors this, accepts what we are saying and will address it with 11.01 update
I have taken the good advice to write to feedback, accessibility and telephone support says it captures data too. Yes I noticed the difference between Catalina and Big Sur immediately and the telephone support person when screen sharing acknowledged that the font size on the top bar seemed small and she volunteered her age as considerably below ours. So I am hopeful that 11.01 will address this.
Did you try the suggestions I made above? I also downgraded my screen resolution one notch
However, if you're on a laptop it may not be practical as you don't have much screen real estate to work with.
This is the menu bar I now have:
Much easier on my eyes. I also use the Dark Reader extension with Safari for white text on an black background. It's easy to turn off if a site doesn't work well that way.
This is the first time in my life I've absolutely hated MacOS. MacOS has always been pretty intuitive, user-friendly, and consistent. Big Sur is anything but. The biggest issues I see are TINY fonts and gray fonts/icons that have little contrast and are hard to see. If I could go back to Catalina, I would, but a piece of software I use requires Big Sur. Grrrrr.
First of all, all this light gray text in Big Sur is difficult if you aren't a twenty-something with perfect eyesight. I've found "contrast" settings in the Accessibility section, but I don't have a disability, so this is not where I would l look to fix the overall issues with Big Sur. I don't want to affect the whole screen...just the text.
Perhaps Apple could have different "profile preferences" available that offer different styles to choose from without labeling them as "accessibility" options. Maybe label them "more contrast," "soothing grays," or whatever. We've always been able to choose colors of buttons and such, but we've never had to deal with the overall colors because there was never a problem. An example of this is the word Favorites below. These items in light gray on light gray background is a little hard for me to read.
Below is another example of a problem with gray...these gray icons. I can barely see the difference between the colors of gray here when it's actual size and tiny in my email app. I understand that some are grayed out because they're unavailable at the moment, but why does that even matter? Also, what the heck are these icons? I have to hover for a tool tip every time. They are not intuitive. It makes no sense to put the "Check Mail" and "New Message" icon over on the right. Put them back on the left since they are the most widely used icons.
I need my monitor to be set on the highest resolution because of a piece of software I use that has a lot of buttons and sliders crammed into the interface, and before Big Sur, I could read the menu just fine. Whatever they did to Big Sur to "update" the menu made it impossible to see for my fifty-something eyes.
And how can I increase the size of the text in Open dialog boxes? It doesn't matter where I change my fonts, these are tiny and unreadable. Why doesn't the system preference to increase font size carry over to these?
One last thing. If you're having problems reading that menu bar with no contrast and you prefer the old style of menu, after you change the Menu Bar Size in the Accessibility --> Displays section, turn on Reduce Transparency and that will make it white like it used to be.
Wrong preference pane. You want the System/Accessibility/Display preference pane.
Changing the screen resolution back to 1280 increased the top bar font size. Easy fix, thanks!
How do I increase Big Sur system font size?
