Sooner or later, it happens to most of us. No matter how good your eyesight once was, that day comes when small print and other fine details become hard (if not impossible) to make out. It’s bad enough when you’re in a restaurant and everyone at the table is waiting for you to order from a blurry menu. It’s much worse when you have to struggle to see the small icons, buttons, and other user interface elements to get your work done in InDesign (or other applications). Fortunately, whether you’re using Mac or Windows, your computer comes with a built-in magnifier that you can use to make those tiny pixels appear a lot larger.
Magnifying the Screen in Mac OS
If you’re working on a Mac, you can enable magnification by opening System Preferences and clicking on Accessibility. Then click on Zoom.
Be sure Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Zoom is selected, and note the keyboard shortcuts:
Option+Command+8 for Toggle Zoom
Option+Command+= for Zoom in
Option+Command+- for Zoom out
You can have the zoomed area sharp and pixelated or smoothed with the shortcut Option+Command+\
With the Zoom Style menu, you can choose to zoom the entire screen (Fullscreen), or just a portion of it around your cursor (Picture-in-picture).
Click on More Options. A new dialog box appears where you can set options like the amount of magnification.
And if you’re using the Picture-in-Picture option, you can click on Adjust Size and Location, then drag a side or corner to resize the magnified area.
When it’s the size you want, click OK and then Done.
I haven’t figured out how to get a screenshot of the magnification effect (it disappears whenever I invoke any of my usual screenshot tools), so I resorted to just taking a picture of the screen with my phone to illustrate it.
Also, Anne-Marie reminded me that you can make your cursor larger in the Mac’s Accessibility preferences. Click on Display, and then drag the Cursor size slider till you’re satisfied. The size ranges from Normal (which is actually kinda small), all the way to Large (which is ginormous).
Magnifying the Screen in Windows
Windows also has a rather nifty built-in magnification tool. Just search for “Magnifier” and click on the app in the search results to launch it.
The Magnifier has a simple set of options, including buttons to control the percentage of magnification, three styles of Views (Full-Screen, Lens Mode, and Docked Mode), as well as controls for changing the shape and size of the magnified area in Lens Mode.
So never again will you have to squint, stare, or guess what it is you’re clicking on in InDesign or any other app on your computer.
But for those restaurant menus, you might still want to invest in a pair of cheap reading glasses.
This article was last modified on July 25, 2019
This article was first published on May 7, 2015
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