Composing Mail - TOO SMALL to read

As I said many times above: if you use plain text, it does not matter how large a font you use to view on your mac. I compose in 24pt font, as I have bad eyesight. Does not affect the recipient in any way.

And if you prefer rich text (a bad idea, IMO), then you are choosing what font and size the recipient will see.

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

If you are composing mail in Rich Text format, then obviously it will use whatever font you choose.

Why would you force the reader to see, say, 11pt fonts, but composing as if it were 18pt or something?

If, however, you compose Plain Text e-mail, then it does not matter, you can choose any size you want (I edit my e-mail in 24pt, for example).

In my experience, setting Mail preferences to Rich Text does not do anything, Mail always sends plain text unless you set everything for each outgoing individually in the New Message pane. You can verify by doing View > Message > Raw Source on a message in your Sent folder and looking for any html codes that refer to font name or size.

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

As I said many times above: if you use plain text, it does not matter how large a font you use to view on your mac. I compose in 24pt font, as I have bad eyesight. Does not affect the recipient in any way.

And if you prefer rich text (a bad idea, IMO), then you are choosing what font and size the recipient will see.

Do you really find that choosing "rich text" in Mail makes any difference in behavior. As far as I know, Mail still sends in plain text, with no indication of the font and size, as long as you do not set those items manually in the new message pane for each outgoing individually.

You can zoom the entire screen…

System Settings > Accessibility > Zoom.

I'm not really certain what you are trying to do. You can zoom the whole display:

System Settings > Accessibility > Zoom > Use Scroll Gestures to Zoom and select "Control"

Now, hold the control key down and scroll up on the trackpad with two fingers and the screen should zoom. You can pan it by just moving the cursor to the edge of the screen.

The Advanced features might be useful in your use-case.

Tom Gewecke wrote:

Increasing the font size in Mail > Preferences > Fonts and Colors will NOT normally affect what your recipient sees.

dialabrain wrote:

One exception is if the recipient is using Mail as the email client on a Mac. On my Macs the recipient will see the same font size.

Sorry Tom. The above is only true if you email yourself on the same Mac.

Tom Gewecke wrote:

Increasing the font size in Mail > Preferences > Fonts and Colors will NOT normally affect what your recipient sees.

One exception is if the recipient is using Mail as the email client on a Mac. On my Macs the recipient will see the same font size.

I think not.

Apart from using the Accessibility Feature in System Setting > > Accessibilities

You can allows request a Feature to be added to Ventura.

Though, at this point in the development of Ventura, it is doubtful as Apple is Focused on the Final Release of the successor macOS 14 Sonoma to be leased Sept 26, 2023

Feedback - macOS - Apple

al@stair wrote: I DO NOT WANT to increase font size to compose then reduce the font size to send (I will forget and look like an idiot to the recipient).

Increasing the font size in Mail > Preferences > Fonts and Colors will NOT normally affect what your recipient sees.

(The only way to set the font size that the recipient sees is to do that for each outgoing individually in the new message pain. Some users hate that, but in your case it is a bonus).

Tom Gewecke wrote:

In my experience, setting Mail preferences to Rich Text does not do anything, Mail always sends plain text unless you set everything for each outgoing individually in the New Message pane. You can verify by doing View > Message > Raw Source on a message in your Sent folder and looking for any html codes that refer to font name or size.

I am sure you're right. I never ever send rich text e-mail, but it seemed to me that that's what the OP wants - otherwise there would be no point in even thinking of the font size "to send", as it will depend entirely on the recipient's settings.

Mail will not send any hinting to change the font size unless you change the font size in the compose window. Go to mail settings, fonts, and colors and set the font size to whatever you want.

You can change the font and size in new emails via Mail's Font's and Colors settings pane:

If you are composing mail in Rich Text format, then obviously it will use whatever font you choose.

Why would you force the reader to see, say, 11pt fonts, but composing as if it were 18pt or something?

If, however, you compose Plain Text e-mail, then it does not matter, you can choose any size you want (I edit my e-mail in 24pt, for example).