[Tfug] Yet another OSX "fail" - this one is NOT my fault...

[Zack Williams]

> The same friend I was helping in the previous discussion is an older
> gent whose eyesight isn't what it used to be.  His new Mac is the
> "silver iMac" with integrated 22" screen (guesstimate as to size),
> 1680x1050 resolution.  The default fonts for basic OS stuff were too
> small - I'm talking basic stuff like the menus.

Bought the wrong computer.  Look into a Mac Mini, and a cheap HDTV or
19" 1280x1024 display, or something else with big pixels.

> So I look for the font size settings.  I mean, even Windows gives you
> control over that stuff, right?

Yes, and it sucks.   Change the font size in Windows, and you'll get
text that goes off the edge in dialog boxes, icon scaling that looks
like ass, GUI elements being displaced, general functionality
problems, etc.

> Nope.  I couldn't believe it, but multiple rounds of googling confirms
> it: OSX 10.5 "Leopard" series doesn't include font size controls.

Yep, it doesn't.  I'll echo Bowie in saying to change the screen resolution.

In the future (10.6 possibly),  it's possible to change the size of
objects via a resolution independence UI interface:

http://developer.apple.com/releasenotes/GraphicsImaging/RN-ResolutionIndependentUI/

But even then badly written programs will have the same problems as Windows.

> I have another user out there who wants to upgrade, has buttloads of
> money to spend (cost literally NO object), but she's over 70, poor
> eyesight.  She also wants to use something like DragonDictate and
> speech-to-text input is, per my initial search, totally sucky in Linux
> so far, but there is no WAY I can recommend a Mac if we can't adjust
> font sizes.

Adjust display sizes, not font sizes.  Seriously - buy something with
big pixels.  HDTV's are great for this.

Oh, and MacSpeech Dictate works great on OS X and uses the same engine
as Dragon.

- Zack