way OT Rant: P.O.ed and fed up with ....

[Hoyt Weathers]

My eyesight is corrected to 20/20 with BF glasses. I am sure the following has happened to some if not most of you, but I am P.O.ed and fed up with it. When I run a Google Advanced search for something easy, say a Whiteside router bit, I get a lot of hits. Fine so far. Some of them I am interested in exploring further has a type size on their site which is so small and indistinct that I am almost unable to read the words and numbers with my 70 year old eyes. I have now decided to never again order from those sites because I am unsure of what I will be getting delivered via the Big Brown Limo. It is hard for me to believe the owners of those sites are not aware of the problem. They do absolutely nothing about it AFAICT. The web site designer probably has 20/20 vision. I do not. Now I feel somewhat better, but I am still P.O.ed. Hoyt W. Trinity, AL

[John McGaw]

So, have you tried simply cranking up the type size on your browser? It is difficult (not impossible) to lock the size at a small value and most web designers don't try to do it and even when they do try some broswers make it easy to bypass their size setting. What browser are you using? Can you give an example of a site which seems egregiously bad in this regard?

My site might be one of the sort that would leave you PO'd but I assure you that the size of the text can be increased/decreased on every browser I've tried it with, and that is quite a few.

[Werlax]

Mozilla will allow you to do a CTRL + (plus) or a CTRL - (minus) in order to quickly change the font size. Internet Explorer has the option on the View->Text Size menu. I'm not sure if there's a hotkey for it, but I'm sure someone else might know. Maybe Google it? ;)

[Bob]

Hoyt,

Besides selecting a larger font to be displayed, there are freebie software magnifiers available that are turned on/off as needed. Magnification can be set (2x, 4x, etc.) and are easy to use for those sites that think 4pt type is readable by everyone....

If you need some help finding a magnifier program, respond back here. You can also try

as a place to start. Also, look under Accessibility options on your operating system and see if there isn't one included. It may be there already and just not loaded up.

If you need help, let me know what Operating system you're using (Win98, Win98SE, Win2k, WinXP, WinNT.....) and I'll do what I can to locate a program or tell you how to load a program you already may have.

Bob S.

[Frank Ketchum]

Sorry to hear of your frustrations, but most internet browsers allow you to define the font size that it displays. If you have internet explorer 6, click on view, text size and select a larger one. If you don't use IE6, I'm sure a quick google search will reveal how to adjust it for your browser.

Frank

[joey]

For windows Program>Accessories>Accessibility>Magnifier

[Charlie Self]

I had cataract surgery on both eyes, then had to have fibrous material behind the lens burned off recently. The result: I've got pretty good distance vision (something I never had before), but need +1 diopter cheaters for reading. For really close stuff, I use a pair of +2.5 and for shop use, I've got +1.25 bifocal safety glasses I bought at McFeely's.

I think they run about 10 bucks a pair. Rather than deprive myself of pleasure reading or ordering, I'd jump on a pair of those, or at least give them a try at the local Wally World.

One thing: The frames are absolute crap. You have to handle with care (something I'm not good at after wearing glass for over 53 years (from age

12)).

Good luck.

Charlie Self "Don't let yesterday use up too much of today." Will Rogers

[Frank McVey]

Concur completely, Hoyt. My biggest gripe is with the eedjits who use purple foreground text on a black background and suchlike. Like you, I tend to give up and go somewhere more legible.

Cheers,

Frank

[Rossco in Oshawa]

If you have a wheel mouse and Windows, pushing and holding the control key and rotating the wheel lets you increase/decrease font size. Works in Outlook Express on the font sizes as well...

[Larry Blanchard]

Ah, yes. Even white text on a black background is a PITA. The oddball colors on websites bother me more than the size. But if I really must read the site, there's always the "use my colors" option.

[RKON]

This is an IE toolbar that I read about in the Wall Street Journal.

bad thing is that it only works with IE.

Rich

[bridger]

go into the settings and assign a hotkey and the scroll wheel to adjust font size. it's very easy and just makes sense when surfing to nudge fonts up and down that way....

[J. Clarke]

If they're "safety glasses" and the frames have to be handled with care then one wonders how much safety they're providing.

[CW]

I agree with that. Some of the color combinations are pretty bad. Ctrl+a (select all) makes these readable.

[Charlie Self]

J. Clarke responds:

The readers are absolute crap. Not the safety glasses. That's what I thought I said, and that's what I read when I re-read the top. WalMart readers have crappy frames. They are not safety glasses, are not touted as such, should not be expected to perform as such. The safety glasses Jim Ray sells have passed the Z87 standards, and the frames are sturdy.

I have to note that if you depend on a pair of frames to keep a kicked back piece of wood of any size off your face, you might have a real problem coming up. The frames are going to kick up on top of your ears while the lenses are slammed into your face. That's the second reason for having large lenses that wrap around your eye sockets.

But with the eyes surviving just fine, you could find yourself with a broken nose from flying wood. Broken noses hurt.

Charlie Self "Don't let yesterday use up too much of today." Will Rogers

[Upscale]

I agree with you that readers shouldn't be used for any type of protection. I wear glasses and always where a full face shield when using the tablesaw. It protects against dust collecting on my glasses and affecting my view as well as protecting against wooden missiles. It flips up if I have to get it out of the way and the polycarbonate shield snaps off for easy and fairly cheap replacement if it gets scratched up too much.

[Bob Davis]

One thing that might help (if you don't have it already) is to get a nice sharp big screen monitor. My 84 year old father does not have the greatest vision in the world. My nephew got him a 19 inch monitor and set it up for

1024x768 resolution. It helped a lot.

Bob

[Eric Tonks]

That only works if the site was designed correctly, some clueless designers don't want you to change the font size, and therefore change the line endings and length of a column of text as it will "ruin" their "perfect creative design. They fix the font size so the browser cannot change it. These are the sites many are complaining about.