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Zoom into your Mac

Cyril Roger

Cyril Roger

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zoomIf you have one of the smaller Macs, like the 12″ MacBooks, and you’re not graced with perfect 20/20 vision it’s not always easy to see what’s on your screen. There are ways to change that though. First off, and this is a never-ending debate among Mac fans, is the issue of which screen you have chosen for your new Mac. I personally recommend getting a matte screen. Although the glossy one looks nicer, it also tends to reflect light more, making it harder to see.

Second, make use of your screen’s real estate. I recommend hiding the Dock (Apple Menu>Dock>Turn Hiding On) and getting every application in full screen (the green + dot at the top left). Still squinting at your screen? Go to Universal Access, located in System Preferences>System. From there turn zoom on. As you’ll see, zooming in and out can be activated easily via hotkeys. Then make sure to go into the options and choose the right maximum and minimum zoom for you. Test it out on a text document until you’re satisfied with the strength of the zoom. You can also set how the zoomed in screen image moves: continuously with the pointer, only when the pointer reaches the edge, or so the pointer is always near or at the center of an image.

zoom onIf you’re still not satisfied with these little tricks you can turn to alternative applications. One of them is HotBox. Although a bit confusing to set up, this preference pane item allows you to zoom in on very specific areas of your screen and can even fade out the rest of the screen for you. iPiece, accessible from your menu bar is a simple tool to zoom in on anything. Nothing too advanced yet handy if you need to focus on small details. Zooom is the last of the three. Although built specifically to move windows around even when not clicking on the title bar, this little application will also allow you to zoom in on items.

Hopefully, using one of these apps and settings your Mac’s preferences right you should not have any more problems seeing things on your screen. If not, it’s time to go for a bigger monitor (and maybe new glasses!).

Cyril Roger

Cyril Roger

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