Increase Font Size for Menus

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Level 1

43 points

Increase Font Size for Menus

one of the reasons i continue to use firefox is that i can customize the menus and especially increase the font size

apple refuses to implement larger fonts for safari and calendar (which i would love to use but has fonts so small i can barely read them)

is there any way to increase the font size of specifically the bookmark bar fonts and the tab fonts ?
is there any way to skin or apply a theme to safari that might inlcude a better, more readable color scheme with bigger fonts ?

i DO NOT WANT to style the text or appearance of web pages, i know how to do that thanks

i just want to change the look of safari

from what i can tell there is nothing like personas or skins or themes for safari, is that correct ?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 17, 2010 10:06 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Carolyn Samit

Level 10

165,615 points

Dec 17, 2010 10:49 AM in response to KrazyCat

Hi,

from what i can tell there is nothing like personas or skins or themes for safari, is that correct?

Even if there are any third party Safari plugins to do this, if the developer didn't update their software to meet Safari updates, the browser would freeze and ultimately crash.

The GUI for Safari can't be changed but you can provide feedback to Apple Apple Safari / Feedback

You can increase text size on pages only (not images) from the Safari view menu. You can increase page size by pressing Command + or -

You can use Universal Access in System Preferences (Applications folder) and enable Zoom.

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

KrazyCat Author

Level 1

43 points

Dec 19, 2010 1:25 PM in response to KrazyCat

thanks for taking the time to answer

why has apple made such a poor decision ?

the font size in the bookmark bar is almost unreadable to me
the contrast of black on dark gray is terrible

ical uses the smallest fonts imaginable and you can't change them

i now use safari only when i have to and use google for calendar

apple is blowing this one big time ...

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Answer 3

Dec 19, 2010 1:30 PM in response to KrazyCat

I understand what you are saying. The more Safari users that report feedback, the better.

contrast of black on dark gray is terrible

Open System Preferences (Applications folder) then click Universal Access.

if you haven't tried changing the Display to *White on black* ... give that a try.

🙂

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Answer 4

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Dec 19, 2010 1:46 PM in response to KrazyCat

If you're having that much trouble reading the default size text, try reducing your display's resolution.

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Answer 5

KrazyCat Author

Level 1

43 points

Dec 27, 2010 10:02 AM in response to baltwo

baltwo wrote:
If you're having that much trouble reading the default size text, try reducing your display's resolution.

well, it only bothers me in safari and ical (neither of which i use regularly because i can't read the fonts well enough) other programs like opera and firefox make customizing appearance very easy

i don't want to increase the dpi or resolution and lose the real estate

ical is a good example of a program just just doesn't even a text size preference and you end up dealing with events that are tiny

they do it it address book which i do use but safari and ical, no dice .. too bad

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Answer 6

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Dec 27, 2010 10:34 AM in response to KrazyCat

Then, you're out of luck.

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Answer 7

Oct 22, 2011 1:03 PM in response to KrazyCat

I have the same problem. My new MacBook Air 2011 has a high resolution screen and everything got very tiny. It´s hard to see. I use TinkerTool and "All Pages Zoom", but still many things are still too tiny. Also adjusting the fonts in all the programs is a lot of work. It totally *****. The first time I´m really unhappy with Apple products.

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Answer 8

Apr 7, 2012 7:33 AM in response to KrazyCat

KrazyCat, I SO second that emotion. I just turned 53, and I don't generally wear glasses, but the menu fonts are impossible, and the black on grey doesn't help. Plus, I don't want to go to a lower resolution just to read these menus.

Apple, help us "old" people. I don't want a seeing-eye dog, just a bigger font.

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Answer 9

May 10, 2012 6:16 AM in response to Walter Moore

yes , i have had my MBP with the nonglare hi-res screen and the menu/bookmark bar is miniscule. holy shitaki mushrooms. Reducing the resolution would defeat the spending the extra money for a higher res monitor.

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Answer 10

Jun 22, 2013 4:22 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

"Provide feedback"? No offense intended Carolyn but Apple has for all practical purposes gone out of their way with things like the Safari bookmarks bar and iCal in general to NOT allow the look to be altered (i.e. its sooo easy to allow this in Mac apps, it cleary is a conscious decision to not allow it). So clearly they know some uses find it to be a problem, and for whatever reason they have decided to screw those users.

There must be 100 pages of complaints in these forums on iCal and how unreadable it is, yet Apple management clearly does not care what some users think as long as for the moment most users keep buying. Its hard to imagine as ultimately its a very bad busiiness decession and Apple is usually pretty focused on the business side of things, but it seems clear, its style over usefulness.

iCal in particular violates all the current findings on productivity, even if your vision is good enough to see it, it will take your train of thought away from whatever you were doing. But someone at Apple thinks it looks cool or styelish or something (personally even if I could read it, I would think it looked terrible). So we're forced to buy BusyCal instead, or use Firefox. I'm at a loss to explain this attitude, but there is no question the attitude exists and no amount of feedback is giong to help until there is a sea change at Apple (and I'm not talking about Jobs Vs post Jobs as this all started while Steve was firmly in command).

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