Making ALL fonts larger on entire computer

[future_macintosh_owner@mydesk.com]

I'm running XP (and all my other computers) in 600x800 screen
resolution because I have poor eyesite. I can not read that small
text without straining. But it seems most websites are now made for
1024x768 or larger. So now I have to keep scrolling left to right to
read the damn pages. Annoying as hell!

I was wondering if there is a way to set the reso to 1024x768 but make
the text larger in ALL parts of the computer? I know I can use a
larger font on the desktop, but I want EVERYTHING to be larger
throughout the computer, including websites, etc. Is this possible?

I'm motly asking about doing this in XP, but I'd likely also do it on
my Win2000 and Win98 computers if I knew how.

Thanks

 

[Twayne]

In news:u741u5h52atqkq44gektbl801u8guhbrjd@4ax.com,
future_macintosh_owner@mydesk.com <future_macintosh_owner@mydesk.com> typed:
> I'm running XP (and all my other computers) in 600x800
> screen resolution because I have poor eyesite. I can not
> read that small text without straining. But it seems most
> websites are now made for 1024x768 or larger. So now I
> have to keep scrolling left to right to read the damn
> pages. Annoying as hell!
>
> I was wondering if there is a way to set the reso to
> 1024x768 but make the text larger in ALL parts of the
> computer? I know I can use a larger font on the desktop,
> but I want EVERYTHING to be larger throughout the computer,
> including websites, etc. Is this possible?
>
> I'm motly asking about doing this in XP, but I'd likely
> also do it on my Win2000 and Win98 computers if I knew how.
>
> Thanks

You could try changing the dpi setting in your video controls. That will
change everything throughout to a larger size. I used screen resolution
myself, but the dpi setting might be what you want; can't hurt to try it.

Open Control Panel
Click Display
In the resulting Display Properties window, choose the Settings tab.
In this new window, there should be a DPI setting and it should say 96 dpi,
the default setting. Try switching it to say 120 dpi, OK your way out, and
see how that feels to you. You can set it even higher if you wish to; I
don't know what its limit is though.

In Control Panel, the Accessibility options, you can also turn on a
magnifier. Some mouse software let you control this with a mouse button;
mine does. Then, as long as everything is on the screen, you can turn on the
magnifier and move it around the screen to enlarge that portion of the
screen. I've found this one most useful.

Also, in IE and Firefox, you can control the display size of the screens
too, don't forget. I won't go into details because I don't know what browser
or version you have, or even if that would be acceptable to you. It's the
place where I have the most trouble though, and on most sites it's all I
need to do.
Most programs OE, Word, etc., let you determine the size of the text on
screen so you can also set those if you want to. e.g. my OE uses 14 pt text
both for writing and reading e-mails.

So there are quite a few different things you can try and this isn't an all
inclusive list, but it should be enough to get you going or at least improve
the situation somewhat.

Feel free to keep asking questions; someone will be able to assist, I'm
sure.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Paul Randall]

<future_macintosh_owner@mydesk.com> wrote in message
news:u741u5h52atqkq44gektbl801u8guhbrjd@4ax.com...
> I'm running XP (and all my other computers) in 600x800 screen
> resolution because I have poor eyesite. I can not read that small
> text without straining. But it seems most websites are now made for
> 1024x768 or larger. So now I have to keep scrolling left to right to
> read the damn pages. Annoying as hell!
>
> I was wondering if there is a way to set the reso to 1024x768 but make
> the text larger in ALL parts of the computer? I know I can use a
> larger font on the desktop, but I want EVERYTHING to be larger
> throughout the computer, including websites, etc. Is this possible?
>
> I'm motly asking about doing this in XP, but I'd likely also do it on
> my Win2000 and Win98 computers if I knew how.
>
> Thanks

As I understand it, you want the computer to use a bigger font for all of
your applications, and whenever that would require scrolling to fit the
screen, that it be vertical scrolling, and where multiple columns are
involved, that it do something that works for you. It is not possible.

Some possible things you can do:
1) Some browsers let you easily increase font size. Depending on how the
web page style is coded, this may or may not require horizontal scrolling to
see it all. Many web sites use fixed styles that don't work well with font
size changes or changed DPI in the computer settings.

2) Select the text of interest, copy, and paste it into Notepad, and change
the font size & style to suit your needs. I find this handy for longer
texts.

3) Internet explorer has a way to ignore the styles specified by the web
page. This may make the web page have a strange layout, but the text would
be readable. Hopefully someone else can explain how to get to the place to
change this option. They would need to know what browser and version level
you are using.

-Paul Randall

 

[Paul Randall]

<future_macintosh_owner@mydesk.com> wrote in message
news:u741u5h52atqkq44gektbl801u8guhbrjd@4ax.com...
> I'm running XP (and all my other computers) in 600x800 screen
> resolution because I have poor eyesite. I can not read that small
> text without straining. But it seems most websites are now made for
> 1024x768 or larger. So now I have to keep scrolling left to right to
> read the damn pages. Annoying as hell!
>
> I was wondering if there is a way to set the reso to 1024x768 but make
> the text larger in ALL parts of the computer? I know I can use a
> larger font on the desktop, but I want EVERYTHING to be larger
> throughout the computer, including websites, etc. Is this possible?
>
> I'm motly asking about doing this in XP, but I'd likely also do it on
> my Win2000 and Win98 computers if I knew how.
>
> Thanks

To ignore certain style options, like font sizes, in IE 6, go to the tools
menu, choose internet options, and at the bottom of the window click
accessibility. On the accessibility screen, you can ignore colors, font
styles, and font sizes specified on web pages. This may or may not,
depending on other style specifications, make the line longer and need to be
scrolled.

There is one more option on the accessibility screen: format documents using
my style sheet. Hopefully someone will post a style sheet that fixes many
problems for the visually impaired.

-Paul Randall

 

[Anthony Buckland]

<future_macintosh_owner@mydesk.com> wrote in message
news:u741u5h52atqkq44gektbl801u8guhbrjd@4ax.com...
> I'm running XP (and all my other computers) in 600x800 screen
> resolution because I have poor eyesite. I can not read that small
> text without straining. ...

One way around the problem might be to ignore the software
side and consider the purely mechanical side.
1) Lean forward so that the screen is closer to you.
Problem: bad ergonomics, leading to neck pain etc.
2) If you have the resources, buy the biggest monitor available
and set it to 1024x768 even if it would support much finer
resolution.
3) Use some kind of magnifying device, such as viewing the
monitor horizontally using one of those large desk
magnifiers designed for fine work on small objects.