Yosemite hard to look at?

[Etan1000]

…
Another possible solution would be to have an eye test! It's possible you need reading glasses if your eyes get blurry, or you get headaches after a while reading - if you already wear glasses, you may need to be retested. Computer monitors are notorious for highlighting bad eyesight.

I have two 13" MBPs, both non-retina - the 3 yr old one running Mavericks is sharp and clear and I get no headaches using it with my eyeglasses. The brand new one running Yosemite, even after all the suggested "adjustments", makes me squint and my eyes get blurry and I get headaches from using it with my eyeglasses.

So do you suggest that I get two different pairs of glasses - one for normal living and using Mavericks on my older MBP; and the other pair for using my Yosemite MBP?

Should I take my two MBPs into my appointment with my eye doctor when he examines my eyes and writes this special "Yosemite" prescription?

I know that you are trying to be helpful, but there seem to be hundreds of complaints on the 'net from long time veteran Mac users about this problem. One day they have Mavericks and can read their Macs fine and the next day after "upgrading" to Yosemite, and every day thereafter they are suffering from eyestrain, headaches and frustration and work downtime. It's not an imagined problem and it can't be attributed to everyone outgrowing their present eyeglass prescription overnight.

Etan

 

[Artimus12]

I have two 13" MBPs, both non-retina - the 3 yr old one running Mavericks is sharp and clear and I get no headaches using it with my eyeglasses. The brand new one running Yosemite, even after all the suggested "adjustments", makes me squint and my eyes get blurry and I get headaches from using it with my eyeglasses.

So do you suggest that I get two different pairs of glasses - one for normal living and using Mavericks on my older MBP; and the other pair for using my Yosemite MBP?

Should I take my two MBPs into my appointment with my eye doctor when he examines my eyes and writes this special "Yosemite" prescription?

I know that you are trying to be helpful, but there seem to be hundreds of complaints on the 'net from long time veteran Mac users about this problem. One day they have Mavericks and can read their Macs fine and the next day after "upgrading" to Yosemite, and every day thereafter they are suffering from eyestrain, headaches and frustration and work downtime. It's not an imagined problem and it can't be attributed to everyone outgrowing their present eyeglass prescription overnight.

Etan

But? there is no but if you know I'm trying to be helpful.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, and your reply is full to bursting with it.

Grow up and be more gracious if you think someone is trying to help, because even if their attempt doesn't benefit you, it might benefit someone else in a similar position ...you're not the only person making that claim and my reply wasn't just for you alone! If you hadn't taken away the context of my post by trimming the first paragraph, you might have seen that.

me, me, me, me, me!

Selfish is as selfish does. It'd serve you right if the next time you fell asleep, someone stole your eyeballs - that'll fix it.

 

[grahamperrin]

Partly off-topic: reactions

… it might benefit someone else in a similar position …

Good point.

Speaking only for myself, I sometimes overreact when comments are repetitive. In this topic the comments probably are not repetitive but elsewhere the comments – mostly positive – about optometry, good eyesight and so on began months ago. Eyesight aside, for a moment, a minority of posts about problems in/around Yosemite have been antagonistically sarcastic, which does nothing to help people who are already frustrated An unfortunate side-effect of that button-pressing: a subsequent post that's entirely well-meaning may be misinterpreted.

Related (I am sometimes one of these people): Why are people in here so mean?

Back on topic: the desktop environment of Yosemite is amongst the environments that I plan to test after I get a MacBook Pro with Retina display. When the time comes, I'll almost certainly post something about my reactions here in this topic.

 

[Etan1000]

But? there is no but if you know I'm trying to be helpful.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, and your reply is full to bursting with it.

Grow up and be more gracious if you think someone is trying to help, because even if their attempt doesn't benefit you, it might benefit someone else in a similar position ...you're not the only person making that claim and my reply wasn't just for you alone! If you hadn't taken away the context of my post by trimming the first paragraph, you might have seen that.



Selfish is as selfish does. It'd serve you right if the next time you fell asleep, someone stole your eyeballs - that'll fix it.

My friend Artimus (and we are all friends here),

I am afraid that you have mistaken irony for sarcasm.

No personal attack or ridicule was intended, and since it came across that way to you, I apologize.

Best wishes,

Etan (with my two pairs of eyeglasses)

 

[Etan1000]

I have two 13" MBPs, both non-retina - the 3 yr old one running Mavericks is sharp and clear and I get no headaches using it with my eyeglasses. The brand new one running Yosemite, even after all the suggested "adjustments", makes me squint and my eyes get blurry and I get headaches from using it with my eyeglasses.

So do you suggest that I get two different pairs of glasses - one for normal living and using Mavericks on my older MBP; and the other pair for using my Yosemite MBP?

Should I take my two MBPs into my appointment with my eye doctor when he examines my eyes and writes this special "Yosemite" prescription?

I know that you are trying to be helpful, but there seem to be hundreds of complaints on the 'net from long time veteran Mac users about this problem. One day they have Mavericks and can read their Macs fine and the next day after "upgrading" to Yosemite, and every day thereafter they are suffering from eyestrain, headaches and frustration and work downtime. It's not an imagined problem and it can't be attributed to everyone outgrowing their present eyeglass prescription overnight.

Etan

Update:

I have tried purchasing and using various reading glasses in different strengths from the local pharmacy and they have not helped. The Mac with Mavericks on it still reads sharp and clear and the brand new Mac with Yosemite on it still gives me eyestrain, headaches and frustration and work downtime.

Then I purchased a pair of adjustable eyeglasses called Adlens® Adjustables Variable Focus Eyeglasses - You Set the Magnification for a Perfect View - so that I could re-adjust the magnification according to which Mac/OS I was on. No help on eliminating the eyestrain etc. on the Mac running Yosemite.

Regards, Etan

 

[Partron22]

Then I purchased a pair of adjustable eyeglasses... No help on eliminating the eyestrain etc. on the Mac running Yosemite.

You get old, and the Maillard reaction has time to work on your eye's lens and cornea. That tinges things yellow, and increases light scattering, so contrast is reduced. No glasses in the world can fix that contrast reduction, and Yosemite piles its own contrast reduction on top of that. It's a great recipe for eyestrain, and one that Apple's kludgy "Increase Contrast" option doesn't address completely.

 

[indraq]

yes, Yosemite is eye straining after 10-15 mins of browsing (imac 27"). I am 25" away from the screen.

My only solution is back to Maverick. the blurry, headache, that ever moving weird visual patterns inside eye-sight now gone xD

 

[Bazza01]

I was directed to this thread after posting about eye strain since buying a Mac.

I've always been a PC user but recently invested in a 5K Retina 27" Mac.

Shortly after setting up and using my eyes felt strained and I started to get headaches.

I put it down to a recent bout of flu but every time I came off the Mac, took headache tablets and cleared the headache when I went back on the Mac the eye strain started as well as the headaches.

I will read through all of the posts to see if someone has posted a solution or someone here could save me the effort (and the eye strain and headache!!) if they can direct me to a solution or tell me if there isn't one.

Currently I feel quite anxious as I have spent, with upgrades, over £3500 on this Mac and I cannot use it for any length of time.

I have work and projects to complete starting in the New Year and I'm wondering how I will manage this if I cannot use the Mac.

On one hand I am pleased it isn't just me. On the other I'm hoping there is a fix.

 

[D1STORT1ON]

There's a thread floating around here with a link to an app that changes the system font back to Lucida Grande. I'd suggest you start with that.

The other thing would be try turning off transparency in System Prefs>Accessibility

 

[grahamperrin]

Lucida Grande Yosemite.app (orientation)

Lucida Grande Yosemite.app

There's a thread floating around here with a link to an app that changes the system font back to Lucida Grande. …

Yep, earlier in this topic: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=20130674#post20130674

Background: What do you think of Lucida Grande + OS X Yosemite

 

[Etan1000]

I was directed to this thread after posting about eye strain since buying a Mac.

I've always been a PC user but recently invested in a 5K Retina 27" Mac.

Shortly after setting up and using my eyes felt strained and I started to get headaches.

I put it down to a recent bout of flu but every time I came off the Mac, took headache tablets and cleared the headache when I went back on the Mac the eye strain started as well as the headaches.

I will read through all of the posts to see if someone has posted a solution or someone here could save me the effort (and the eye strain and headache!!) if they can direct me to a solution or tell me if there isn't one.

Currently I feel quite anxious as I have spent, with upgrades, over £3500 on this Mac and I cannot use it for any length of time.

I have work and projects to complete starting in the New Year and I'm wondering how I will manage this if I cannot use the Mac.

On one hand I am pleased it isn't just me. On the other I'm hoping there is a fix.

Until Apple fixes this, use the Schreiberstein font fix, switch from Safari to FireFox and add No-Squint and Theme Font & Size Changer to FF; and try using TinkerTool to universally change the default font choices and sizes across all other applications to save the effort of making the changes individually in each application (remembering TinkerTool doesn't make any changes the app itself doesn't permit); If TT doesn't make the changes in Apple Mail or other apps, make them yourself; turn on Dark Menu in System Preferences/General: and uncheck "Use LCD font smoothing"; also increase contrast and reduce transparency in System Preferences.

Regards, Etan

 

[Bazza01]

Thanks All.

I will try these and report back.

 

[Etan1000]

Related (I am sometimes one of these people): Why are people in here so mean?

I don't know about "mean" but I think it's become very clear that eyestrain and headaches, when trying to get one's work done, tends to make us all rather cranky and we still have gotten no relief from Apple, just a growing list of kludges created for us by merciful third party sources. Should this be necessary on a premium line of computers, one of whose slogans was "It just works!"

Etan

 

[vista980622]

Same issue here.
Pretty major eye-strain after using Yosemite for an extended period of time. Same issue do not occur under Mavericks.

 

[Bazza01]

Same issue here.
Pretty major eye-strain after using Yosemite for an extended period of time. Same issue do not occur under Mavericks.

How long have you been using Yosemite for?

I posted on this thread after buying a Mac Retina and experiencing eye strain and headaches.

I had my eyes checked which were fine but now 4 months after using Yosemite I don't have the headaches and have put it down to my eyes adapting to a different screen / font resolution.

From time to time I use anti-glare glasses when my eyes feel a bit heavy.

 

[vista980622]

How long have you been using Yosemite for?

I posted on this thread after buying a Mac Retina and experiencing eye strain and headaches.

I had my eyes checked which were fine but now 4 months after using Yosemite I don't have the headaches and have put it down to my eyes adapting to a different screen / font resolution.

From time to time I use anti-glare glasses when my eyes feel a bit heavy.

It's great to hear your experience. Thank you!

I've been using both Yosemite and Mavericks (dual-boot system) everyday since last June on both my MacBook Air and Mac mini. They do not have Retina or HiDPI displays.

For myself, I'm 16-years-old, and my eyesight is 5.1(L), 5.0(R). So I should have no issue on my eyes.

When I work for more than one hour under Apple-designed-Yosemite apps such as Finder or iWork, I experience eye-strain.

I think there are four contribution factors here:
1) Helvetica Neue
This is partly resolved by a utility I made with Alex, LucidaGrandeYosemite, but even with this, Yosemite still causes eye strain for me, which led me to discover the next issue.

2) The overuse of white color
Mavericks had a lot of light-grey to dark-grey gradient throughout the system, most noticeably applications' frameworks. However, Yosemite replaces them with much whiter gradient, and they cause eye-sour during darker environment (Dark mode do not help with these as they only change the color of Menu bar and Dock). Certain app also has textures stripped away, which previously served as resting area for my eyes and now they're completely white.
I always think simple design should be ones with a clear, simple logic instead of being visually empty. (Just to me,) it feels Yosemite tries to be simple with the latter, not the former.

3) Text on sidebar are a tad shallower to accommodate the visual style
A lot of text throughout the system are shallower, shifting from dark grey to slightly lighter grey. This is most pronounced in sidebar (or as Apple calls them, "Source Lists"), and turn on "Increase Contrast" will partly revert the text darkness to the previous behavior, but rest of the UI looks pretty bad.

4) Buttons bleeding into each other
Buttons are even lighter white, and they do not have clear separators. The white-ness of such button shape seems awkward, as they neither separate themselves from the title bar, nor distinguish themselves as individual buttons. But at the same time, they make my eyes painful because of the stark contrast of color within the title bar. Again, turning on "Increase Contrast" will partly make things somehow better (and even remind me of OS 9!), but rest of the UI looks pretty bad.

5) Poor sub-pixel rendering for selected file under Finder and Safari tab names.
This is not a personal preference. It's a bug (and has been marked as a duplicate, which means I'm not imagining this), where when file name is high-lighted in Finder, the blue overlay makes the text above have really bad sub-pixel rendering.

There are probably also other reasons, but for now, that's my best guess on why it stresses my eyes. Using a Retina/HiDPI display seems to migrate these issues, but as a 15-year-old, I don't have money for those...

 

[Bazza01]

It's great to hear your experience. Thank you!

I've been using both Yosemite and Mavericks (dual-boot system) everyday since last June on both my MacBook Air and Mac mini. They do not have Retina or HiDPI displays.

For myself, I'm 16-years-old, and my eyesight is 5.1(L), 5.0(R). So I should have no issue on my eyes.

When I work for more than one hour under Apple-designed-Yosemite apps such as Finder or iWork, I experience eye-strain.

I think there are four contribution factors here:
1) Helvetica Neue
This is partly resolved by a utility I made with Alex, LucidaGrandeYosemite, but even with this, Yosemite still causes eye strain for me, which led me to discover the next issue.

2) The overuse of white color
Mavericks had a lot of light-grey to dark-grey gradient throughout the system, most noticeably applications' frameworks. However, Yosemite replaces them with much whiter gradient, and they cause eye-sour during darker environment (Dark mode do not help with these as they only change the color of Menu bar and Dock). Certain app also has textures stripped away, which previously served as resting area for my eyes and now they're completely white.
I always think simple design should be ones with a clear, simple logic instead of being visually empty. (Just to me,) it feels Yosemite tries to be simple with the latter, not the former.

3) Text on sidebar are a tad shallower to accommodate the visual style
A lot of text throughout the system are shallower, shifting from dark grey to slightly lighter grey. This is most pronounced in sidebar (or as Apple calls them, "Source Lists"), and turn on "Increase Contrast" will partly revert the text darkness to the previous behavior, but rest of the UI looks pretty bad.

4) Buttons bleeding into each other
Buttons are even lighter white, and they do not have clear separators. The white-ness of such button shape seems awkward, as they neither separate themselves from the title bar, nor distinguish themselves as individual buttons. But at the same time, they make my eyes painful because of the stark contrast of color within the title bar. Again, turning on "Increase Contrast" will partly make things somehow better (and even remind me of OS 9!), but rest of the UI looks pretty bad.

5) Poor sub-pixel rendering for selected file under Finder and Safari tab names.
This is not a personal preference. It's a bug (and has been marked as a duplicate, which means I'm not imagining this), where when file name is high-lighted in Finder, the blue overlay makes the text above have really bad sub-pixel rendering.

There are probably also other reasons, but for now, that's my best guess on why it stresses my eyes. Using a Retina/HiDPI display seems to migrate these issues, but as a 15-year-old, I don't have money for those...

A very well constructed assessment of your opinion as to why this may be.

I'm equally impressed that you went from being 16 at the beginning of your post to 15 at the end!! (If you could create an age reduction solution and market it you're going to being very wealthy

From my own experience I can only put it down to a drastic change in the resolution compared to what I was used to. The retina screen makes everything much smaller. To change the resolution down and away from the retina display would defeat the object of buying this Mac.

When I use my PC it is a more relaxing experience but I really only use Windows at work.

Have you discussed this with Apple? Maybe send them your thoughts via their Feedback website.

Hope it gets better for you.

 

[vista980622]

A very well constructed assessment of your opinion as to why this may be.

I'm equally impressed that you went from being 16 at the beginning of your post to 15 at the end!! (If you could create an age reduction solution and market it you're going to being very wealthy

From my own experience I can only put it down to a drastic change in the resolution compared to what I was used to. The retina screen makes everything much smaller. To change the resolution down and away from the retina display would defeat the object of buying this Mac.

When I use my PC it is a more relaxing experience but I really only use Windows at work.

Have you discussed this with Apple? Maybe send them your thoughts via their Feedback website.

Hope it gets better for you.

Thank you.

I wanted to send it to Apple, but their feedback form only allows limited amount of text to be submitted. It cuts my answer to about 1/3 of the original length so I didn't submit it.

EDIT: Just sent an email to Tim Cook and Craig Federighi, but chances for it being read is pretty slim.

And I'm 16. The end was a typo. Sorry about that. I do hope I have that age reduction solution though.

 

[Bazza01]

Thank you.

I wanted to send it to Apple, but their feedback form only allows limited amount of text to be submitted. It cuts my answer to about 1/3 of the original length so I didn't submit it.

EDIT: Just sent an email to Tim Cook and Craig Federighi, but chances for it being read is pretty slim.

And I'm 16. The end was a typo. Sorry about that. I do hope I have that age reduction solution though.

No need to apologise, I was only joking with you

Shame that Apple feedback is restricted. I didn't realise that.

Maybe when next in an Apple store give them the feedback. I know that they spotlight issues especially when it affects customer usability.

You may find as I did that over time your eyes will adapt. Hopefully that will be the case.

 

[vista980622]

No need to apologise, I was only joking with you

Shame that Apple feedback is restricted. I didn't realise that.

Maybe when next in an Apple store give them the feedback. I know that they spotlight issues especially when it affects customer usability.

You may find as I did that over time your eyes will adapt. Hopefully that will be the case.

I hope I'll be able to adapt very soon, too.

I'll also send a feedback about the feedback page itself when I have time.

Again, thanks for your support!

 

[Etan1000]

I hope I'll be able to adapt very soon, too.

I'll also send a feedback about the feedback page itself when I have time.

Again, thanks for your support!

I think it would be very useful if you could break it into three parts and feed them into Feedback consecutively. We'd all be very grateful to you.

Etan

 

[grahamperrin]

Feedback: AppleSeed and the Apple Beta Software Program

… feedback form only allows limited amount of text …

https://appleseed.apple.com includes a link to the Apple Beta Software Program. If you're willing to participate, you should find Feedback Assistant well suited to your needs.

 

[vista980622]

https://appleseed.apple.com includes a link to the Apple Beta Software Program. If you're willing to participate, you should find Feedback Assistant well suited to your needs.

I am already in the program.....
So thanks. I'll submit it today!

 

[roadbloc]

Yes. Yosemite is horrible to look it. I can't use it, it gives me headaches. Terrible UI work.