magnifier wouldn't need to be at the top of this graph if MS would allow users to increase the font size in windows in a system-wide way. and this is not DPI settings, that change the size of all UI elements.
PPI scaling is done in the Metro interface. I'd assume the main point of this is for low resolution displays that barely meet Win8 requirements, and for the desktop mode.
What's the point of resizing just fonts and not the surrounding UI? The end result would be text that doesn't fit in text fields, icons too small for their accompanying headers, and there's the real possibility that layout is impacted.
the icons and pictures are at good sizes at this moment. but there is this "trend" to use smaller fonts in everything because "it looks good".
actually this started a coupe years ago, with the smartphone market growth. because the phone screen is so small, it was mandatory to use small fonts. and someone at MS and a lot of sites tough it would be good do the same thing on the desktop.
the thing is, i dont want to have a phone experience on the desktop. and as the world population is aging this small text wave will eventually disappear.
until then, i increased all fonts on my win7 from 9 to 10pt. it was enough to solve most of the problems with "readability". i could not increase it in IE9 however, so I switched to Opera that lets me choose a minimun font size for all sites, and i'm good to go.
i'm not a noob, but could not find this CSS override in anywhere on IE9. and i googled it a lot (mainly trying to disable the sub-pixel text rendering).
anyway, this is much easier on opera: CTRL+F12, advanced, text, minimun font size. done.
Dont know what you're talking about. I've been designing sites for a decade and the trend these days is bigger text, not smaller. And if you look at Metro and Windows Phone 7 the text is often very large, sometimes massive.
As phones, tablets and monitors all get higher res displays this large text trend will only increase to compensate for the smaller screen pixels. So you have nothing to worry about.
WPF in .NET, Sliverlight, and WinRT all use DPI scaling for the entire UI. If developers are too lazy to implement it in their other apps, that's not MS's fault.
Excuse me! Accessibility??????? On win 7 I have complete Accessibility to any program without having to buy a Metro app from the Microsoft Store. Am I missing something, is this just a Microsoft sales plot to gain revenue? I just don't see the point, or maybe this is a tablet only operating system. I don't see any advantage in accessibility for the desktop. So, go ahead and buy a magnifier app from the Microsoft Store, if that's your thing!
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marc1000 - Tuesday, February 14, 2012 - link
magnifier wouldn't need to be at the top of this graph if MS would allow users to increase the font size in windows in a system-wide way. and this is not DPI settings, that change the size of all UI elements.jeremyshaw - Tuesday, February 14, 2012 - link
PPI scaling is done in the Metro interface. I'd assume the main point of this is for low resolution displays that barely meet Win8 requirements, and for the desktop mode.toytanks - Tuesday, February 14, 2012 - link
What's the point of resizing just fonts and not the surrounding UI? The end result would be text that doesn't fit in text fields, icons too small for their accompanying headers, and there's the real possibility that layout is impacted.marc1000 - Tuesday, February 14, 2012 - link
the icons and pictures are at good sizes at this moment. but there is this "trend" to use smaller fonts in everything because "it looks good".actually this started a coupe years ago, with the smartphone market growth. because the phone screen is so small, it was mandatory to use small fonts. and someone at MS and a lot of sites tough it would be good do the same thing on the desktop.
the thing is, i dont want to have a phone experience on the desktop. and as the world population is aging this small text wave will eventually disappear.
until then, i increased all fonts on my win7 from 9 to 10pt. it was enough to solve most of the problems with "readability". i could not increase it in IE9 however, so I switched to Opera that lets me choose a minimun font size for all sites, and i'm good to go.
no magnifier to me. ;)
Klimax - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
Just FYI: In IE you can set custom css (override) and also force IE to ignore specified font sizes.(AFAIK it was there since IE6)
marc1000 - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
i'm not a noob, but could not find this CSS override in anywhere on IE9. and i googled it a lot (mainly trying to disable the sub-pixel text rendering).anyway, this is much easier on opera: CTRL+F12, advanced, text, minimun font size. done.
bpharri2 - Thursday, February 16, 2012 - link
For IE9:Tools -> Internet Options -> General tab -> Accessiblity button
same amount of steps as Opera:
Alt+T, O, Accessibility button, change settings
B3an - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
Dont know what you're talking about. I've been designing sites for a decade and the trend these days is bigger text, not smaller. And if you look at Metro and Windows Phone 7 the text is often very large, sometimes massive.As phones, tablets and monitors all get higher res displays this large text trend will only increase to compensate for the smaller screen pixels. So you have nothing to worry about.
marc1000 - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
B3an, look at facebook. thats on of the best examples of small text on the web.B3an - Thursday, February 16, 2012 - link
Facebook has always had small text, since 2004 when it appeared. It's not a recent thing. They will eventually have to make it larger.Spivonious - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
WPF in .NET, Sliverlight, and WinRT all use DPI scaling for the entire UI. If developers are too lazy to implement it in their other apps, that's not MS's fault.Taurus229 - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
Excuse me! Accessibility??????? On win 7 I have complete Accessibility to any program without having to buy a Metro app from the Microsoft Store. Am I missing something, is this just a Microsoft sales plot to gain revenue? I just don't see the point, or maybe this is a tablet only operating system. I don't see any advantage in accessibility for the desktop. So, go ahead and buy a magnifier app from the Microsoft Store, if that's your thing!shopper4him - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
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