Tiny font using mail in iOS 10

Thanks Mr Luigi, this is indeed appalling.

I have tried Outlook, but couldn't get the comfort of the native app, so I ditched it.

This is such a shame, especially when you watch this video describing how much effort went into designing the San Francisco font, only to have it ignored in the most used business app!

https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2015/804/

Hello Luigi,

Looks good.

We're still all having the issue and no solution yet.

Let us know what Apple bug team tells you.

I had post a bug the following day of the 10.3.1 update.

The support team told me that there was already a bug report opened and that they would close mine.

Maybe we should all report the bug to the following adresse:

https://bugreport.apple.com/logon

hopping that apple tech will take this seriously.

Thx

Hi ZachCard,

Here is the link to iPhone feedback: https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Here is the link to the Apple Support App. This app allows you to live chat with Apple Support: https://appsto.re/us/8FGydb

Below is the bug report I submitted. Since this is to the Developer's feedback site, it is formatted somewhat differently than what you would use. Pick and choose what you want.

Area:

Accessibility

Summary:

The size of text in the body of some emails, when using Apple's native email app, is unaccessibly small. Please refer to Apple Discussion Thread at (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7667124?answerId=31678318022#31678318022&start=0&tstart=0). This is just one of many discussions online where thousands of users lament the small size of text in the body of emails in the native email app.

Please compare this problem with Apple's native email app to other email clients, such as Microsoft's Outlook for iOS. The text in the body of emails using Microsoft's Outlook for iOS is consistent and much larger than what Apple's native email app generates. Users could switch to Outlook, but they want the advantages that come with using the native email app.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Steps to Reproduce:

Case 1) General --> Accessibility --> Turn Larger Text "ON" --> The text size does scale linearly in the HEADER of an email as you move the Dynamic Type text size slider. But, the text in the BODY of the email remains incredibly small. IF you move the Dynamic Type text size slider two notches past the midpoint, THEN the text in the body of the email will start to increase in size. But, it is HUGE!

Case 2) General --> Accessibility --> Turn Larger Text "OFF" --> The text size does scale linearly in the HEADER of an email as you move the Dynamic Type text size slider. The text in the BODY of the email does NOT change at all in size. It remains unacceptably small throughout the entire range of the Dynamic Type text size slider.

Case 3) Viewing email in Portrait mode --> Text size in BODY of email very small (rough estimate, 6 point font) --> Rotate to Landscape Mode --> Text size DOES increase slightly in size. Maybe to 8 pt. font. Still too small, but readable. --> Rotate Back to Portrait Mode --> Text size REMAINS at roughly 8 point font from Landscape mode. BUT, REFLOW functionality is LOST --> You now need to Pan to view the contents of the email --> This is a bug that has been reported by others in discussion threads.

Case 4) When emails contain tables or charts, the size of text in the body of the email will shrink as a way to fit the table in the email. This makes the text unreadably small.

Expected Results:

I expect the size of the text in the body of emails to scale linearly throughout the entire range of the text size slider with both Larger text "OFF" and Larger text "ON." I expect to not lose Reflow functionality when shifting from Landscape to Portrait Mode. I expect to not see text reduced in size in emails containing tables or charts.

Actual Results:

See above in "Steps to reproduce."

Version:

Version: iOS 10.3.2

Configuration:

Configuration: iPhone 6s+ and iPhone 6s, Verizon

I can only read it if I select FORWARD and DO NOT INCLUDE. I can the read it in the forward email which I then delete.

The other way I have found is to select the share arrow and PRINT. Then use two fingers to convert the print to pdf. I can then read the pdf.

Print from iOS Mail to PDF.

@mr Luigi, I just submitted my feedback report to Apple about the continuing problem with tiny fonts in several apps, including mail. For me it's a 1995 problem, the early days of smartphones, on a 2016 device. Not acceptable.

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...