Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Poor Vision - No Problem. 5 Easy Eye Saving Tips

Although my vision is poor-legally blind-there are PC settings that help me. Yes, it is more work and yes, there are things I can no longer do. Fundamentally I need text bigger.



Windows and Mac have settings to help out the visually impaired. The most often used is adjusting the screen resolution to make everything larger. For now, I'll focus on Windows.


  1. Use a larger monitor. I have been using a 23" diagonal monitor for many years
  2. Adjust screen resolution to make everything larger
  3. Change only text size for certain areas of Windows
  4. Zoom In and Out in your browser
  5. Zoom In and Out with the mouse scroll wheel

Changing the Screen Resolution is done in Control Panel. This changes the size of everything.
Go to Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Display > Screen Resolution > Advanced Settings.
I use 150% instead of 100%


There is also an option to Change Only Text Size with a drop down to select where and the size you want. The options are:


I change the Menus, Title Bars and Icon Size fonts to 12 pt from the default 9 pt.

Windows 8.x has a nifty app called Magnifier. I haven't spent much time with this app but I gave it a try recently and it works pretty well and flexible enough to make things bigger on the screen. It does create some work and getting used to as you either move the mouse point to the screen edge or use the keyboard arrow keys to navigate.

All browsers allow zooming of the screen by holding the Control Key and hitting the '+' key to zoom in. Likewise Control and '-' key to zoom out.

Also, hold the Control Key and scroll forward or back on the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out.

In some cases, an individual application will have settings to make things bigger. Look for Preferences or Settings to see what is there.

As a Free tip, instead of carrying a magnifying glass, use your smartphone and a FREE app called Magnifying Glass. There are many for Android and Apple.

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