Display resolution, monitor size, ergonomics, and screen real estate

[vjjohnson3]

Hi,
I am interested in learning more about displays, screen size, text size, zooming capabilities, screen magnifiers.
First, with os x can you zoom the screen to different magnifications?

Second, has anyone used a fresnel lens or some other magnifier to magnify their monitor? I am hoping to buy a new imac intel but the screen is kind of small with respect to text, etc. and I would like to view the monitor from another room. I am planning on buying an lcd tv to magnify it as well, but in the mean time I am looking for temporary solutions.

Third, in viewing the different mac monitors at the store I noticed something interesting. The bigger the monitor it seems the more screen "real estate" you get but... the size of the text, images, etc. is still about the same no matter which size monitor you view. In other words the bigger monitor is designed to allow more space to use for viewing more windows, etc.??? But not for making the text, images, etc. bigger. Also I know that the resolution closely relates to this and that you can change the resolution.

To make a long story short I am trying to make the text, images, and everything have the option of being very large or zoomed in. Is this possible??

And how will the image look on a large lcd tv?? Will it be as nice as the 30 inch mac monitor that I saw in regards to screen "real estate"?

Fourth, has anyone used any third party software to magnify/zoom?

any and all comments are welcome and appreciated.
Thanks,
Vincent

 

[frankblundt]

X has zoom built in (switch it on under Sys Prefs > Universal Access) apple-option +/- to zoom in and out.

You could probably also play around with the Finder "View Options" so that you have the screen set at a high resolution (like 1920x1200) which would allow you to get lots of windows on the screen, but up the default system font size so that the text items appear relatively larger (doesn't seem to affect the titles or sidebar info tho).

If you set the monitor to a lower resolution, everything will appear that much larger (but less will fit in). The displays you've seen all look more or less the same in the store because they're each set to maximum resolution for that size monitor (the smaller the LCD the lower the maximum resolution it can do) so the 20" will be at 1000x800, the 23" at 1900x1200 and the 30" at (something inconcievably large to someone currently forced to work on a crap IBM 15" CRT)

 

[Darwin]

First, with os x can you zoom the screen to different magnifications?

Yes, as part of the Universal Access setting in the System Prefs

You can zoom in and out and turn the fuction on and off simply using Keyboard shortcuts (Which are shown in the Universal Access)

Third, in viewing the different mac monitors at the store I noticed something interesting. The bigger the monitor it seems the more screen "real estate" you get but... the size of the text, images, etc. is still about the same no matter which size monitor you view. In other words the bigger monitor is designed to allow more space to use for viewing more windows, etc.??? But not for making the text, images, etc. bigger. Also I know that the resolution closely relates to this and that you can change the resolution.

At the moment when you go up in resolution you will find that the things like text and icons will stay at the same size and so it appears smaller

Apple is aware of that and so hopefully there will be a resoultion independent feature that will allow things like the menu bar and icons to be viewable from a big screen such as the 30" Cinema Display (I think that there is a program that comes with the Developer tools that allows you to activate this feature, however it isn't ready from prime time yet)

To make a long story short I am trying to make the text, images, and everything have the option of being very large or zoomed in. Is this possible??

And how will the image look on a large lcd tv?? Will it be as nice as the 30 inch mac monitor that I saw in regards to screen "real estate"?

You can go into the view settings and make the text bigger, along with the Icons today, however without that feature you won't see the effect working with the windows, menu bar etc.

Your typical LCD TV has a better resoulotion than older CRT TVs and should be fine for your needs, however the quality is still lower then the 30" computer monitor

Hope that helps

 

[Eniregnat]

You can also change the browser font size easily.
There are a couple of places that screen text is changed.
Finder Menubar->view>Text Size (Also Icon size)
Finder Menubar->File>Preferences (general non sizing stuff)
Finder-->Sys Prefs->Universal Access (Zoom and contrast)
Finder-->Sys Prefs->Keyboard and Mouse (hot keys)
Finder-->Sys Prefs->Displays (for altering resolution)

I am slow to post, so I don't mean to copy others postings.

 

[Nate4747]

A lot of the sizes are highly customizable, so it should be easy to get it how you want it.

Also the Zoom function that is built into the OS is really helpful to people who have poor vision.