Tiny font using mail in iOS 10

HI C. Elferink, Thank you for your submission to the feedback site. This issue will not get any traction with Apple unless it rises to a certain threshold determined by the number of folks who report it. I did chat with Apple Support and specifically asked them to submit a "red flag" to Apple on behalf of this issue. In partial jest I also asked if Tim Cook used Apple's native email app. He said he was sure he did. Then I asked if Tim Cook used the Dynamic Type functionality. :-) I am sure he got my point...that is, how does a bug in one of the most basic accessibility features get by Apple's quality control? Doesn't anyone at Apple use their own apps and discover these problems before they get out in the wild!? Anyway, hopefully others will also submit feedback.

Thanks, the Apple Support app isn't available in the UK store for some reason, but I've sent the following feedback using the link you provided:

Ever since I've updated to iOS 10, non-plain text emails appear in small Times New Roman font instead of the iOS default font (San Francisco) in the native Mail app.

In addition, the auto-resize/auto-zoom-and-fit functions (activated by double-tapping on the text) are not working properly, sometimes instead resulting in different parts of the text overlapping each other and making the entire email impossible to read.

Finally, enclosed emails (emails attached to another email) are very difficult to read as there is a scrolling issue when the text moves only a few lines at a time.

I know these are common issues for everyone and were allegedly fixed in iOS 10.1 update, but the problems obviously still persist and render the Mail app practically unusable (especially on 4-inch models like iPhone 5/SE).

These problems did not exist in iOS 9 and surely have a solution, but there is very little feedback from Apple on when these will be finally fixed and whether Apple is actually working on them, which is very, very frustrating and turning business users away from your products.

Apple support suggested that I erase the phone and set it up 'as new'... I didn't even try and Octavius8's example shows it would have been useless anyway.

And no, 10.2 doesn't fix it for me either - using both iPhone 5s and 6.

Thanks Nick - appreciate your help, but this doesn't actually fix the problems. 'Larger text' enlarges the font system-wide, resulting in increased font size everywhere - by the time the email text is inreased to a legible level, system text is all over the screen leaving literally no space for the email itself.

I don't want to increase the font size system-wide, but only for the email text - as many have noted, it worked perfectly well on iOS 9!

Further, I described two more problems in my earlier post, which don't seem to have been resolved either...

Hi elyar 1,

If everyone on this discussion thread simply copied your feedback letter in their own feedback submission, we would be further along the road to having this issue gain traction with Apple. Having said that, there is simply no way to get around the fact that this is poor form on Apple's part. The most important native app on iOS (my opinion) should perform flawlessly.

1. When Apple support offers the generic advice to set up your phone as "new" that just pours salt in the wound. Ridiculous advice in this situation.

2. Microsoft's email client, "Outlook for iOS" performs incredibly well in every area you found the native email app a failure. In fact, they just updated their app to make the text in the body of the email even larger. And they have put more space between the lines of text to further enhance readability. I think you should give it a try. However, because it is not the native email app it does not have some baked in functionalities Apple reserves for its own apps.

Apple should be mortified that Microsoft is delivering a better user experience for email on iOS.

Today's update (iOS 10.2.1) did not solve the problem we have having. You still have to select the Dynamic Type setting two notches to the right of the mid-point to have this feature enlarge the text in emails at all. And then the text is really, REALLY large! Guess I will continue to use Microsoft's Outlook for iOS.

Well done Apple. Well done.

Not!

Hi elyar1!

I concur. Even though I do use Outlook b/c it renders all text at a very legible size and spacing, it is not ideal. As you said, once the user gets "in the flow" with a particular email client it is annoying to have to move away from that sense of comfort and ease. Also, the native email app plays nicely with Siri. And...Yada Yada Yada. Clearly Apple has an obligation to make its native email client a solid and superior performer for everyone...and that includes folks who no longer have 20 year old vision. They have miserably dropped the ball and seemingly are refusing to bend down and pick it up.

I LOVED the video you linked to. Yes, it amazes me that Apple can sink its teeth so deeply into typography and readability and then pee all over the readability of text in its email client.

After discovering that the recent update did not address the problem at hand, I sent a personal email to Tim Cook expressing my dismay and frustration. For some inexplicable reason, I have not heard back from him. 😮

Hi elyar1!

Sadly, my good Buddy, Tim Cook, has not replied. I'm totally gobsmacked! :-) Hm, maybe that's because I wrote to him in 8 pt. font to drive my message home...not considering the fact that he probably does use the native email client and therefore couldn't read the tiny text due to dynamic type failings. Sigh.

I do believe this is a fairly global issue. At least I know it's a problem on the three iPhones in my household. I am also a teacher and have access to a large number of 20-something year olds. I think they may be offering an insight into our dilemma. None of them use dynamic type functionality. They don't need it with their scanning electron microscope vision. So they are oblivious to the issue. I do have friends of a more mature persuasion. Interestingly, if I ask them about the ease of reading some of their emails, their response is, "Oh yeah, now that you mention it, some emails are VERY hard to read because the text is so small. I wish Apple would fix that. It's so annoying."

What the heck!

Based on this limited anecdotal data, I do think the problem is widespread. But a sizable chunk of the user base does not suffer at all from the problem. And another sizable chunk doesn't know to sent feedback, or is not inconvenienced enough to send feedback.

Very frustrating.

I'm going to give Tim another chance. We are both long-time Duke basketball fans and my newest strategy is to try to capitalize on that shared background.

Battered but not beaten.

Bruised but not broken.

Dazed but not confused.

Well, actually I am confused. But now, "I am confused at a higher level, and about more important things."

Cheers, Mr. L

Update regarding Dynamic Type functionality:

I submitted a bug report on the Apple Developer's site a couple months ago and explained the non-linear behavior of the text size slider in Dynamic Type. I just received an email from engineering. They said the problem is now fixed. I can confirm this is true. You no longer have to set the slider two positions past the mid-point to enlarge the text. All slider positions work. This should provide a fully working solution for anyone wanting larger text size in the native email app.

Cheers to all! Mr. Luigi

Still not fixed for me. Has it really been fixed for anybody?.

I have tried again and again all the methods in this thread in Iphone 7 w/IOS 10.2.1 and also on my wife's iphone SE IOS 10.2.1 and always the same frustrating mediocre all-or-nothing-micro-or-oversized-system-wide-font "solution" provided by Microso... I mean Apple.

I have tried the same emails in my ipad with ios 9 and they show as they should!, I am not updating my ipad and I would sue apple for forcing me "update".

I firmly believe that now nobody in top positions in Apple uses their products, inconceivable somebody would accept this. Please Tim, get your act together!!

Anway... Has anybody tried IOS 10.3 (beta) and seen any changes to the "tiny font problem"?.

Gosh, so frustrating, really, the Chinese phones are making more and more sense every year...

Hi Octavius, I'm at a loss. You have Dynamic Type turned on? And when you move the text size slider from left to right it does NOT increase the size of the text in nice incremental steps for each position on the slider? That's frustrating. We have 3 iPhones (iPhone 6s and 6s+) at home and all 3 now enjoy nice incremental text size increases throughout the entire range offered by the slider. No longer does the text go from tiny to HUGE in one singe jump.

Did you try doing a hard reset of your iPhone to remove any "bad residues?" I'm sure you know how to do that, but just in case...hold down the power AND home buttons simultaneously until the screen goes blank and then the apple logo reappears. Then let go of the two buttons.

Seriously, has anyone upgraded to 10.3 - does it have a fix?

As I already mentioned, increasing font size doesn't help, because it changes the size everywhere except in the email itself.

However, I have noticed that when you reply to some emails initially displayed in tiny Times New Roman, the font changes to normal size San Francisco - which means the fix should not be difficult!

I can't believe there is no other way to deliver this message to Apple. I'm not putting up with this - can someone help??

Hi elyar1,

Get this...10.3 REBROKE the email client! At least for me, Dynamic Type functionality was working perfectly the past month or two. The size of the text increased "linearly" throughout the entire range of sizes offered in the slider bar. Nice. After updating to 10.3 yesterday, the text size is incredibly tiny again...UNTIL YOU POSITION THE SLIDER TWO NOTCHES PAST THE MIDPOINT. And then the text is really large. Incredible. Just incredible.😠

Same for me guys. Was following the discussion for months and was happy this had been finally solved. Now back to **** again. I join Outlook now. Less tiny font, not as in the past, but at least this does not change.

hi all

i just discovered this thread since 10.3 ...

Indeed, everything was perfect so far, but since 10.3, I'm now facing the exact same issue for "tiny email".

That's sad : Apple simply created a bug.

it's funny that I removed Outlook last year due to this ... but looks like they have fixed it since then.