How can I change the system font size in OS X?

Question

I'm using a Mac Mini on big flat-screen TV for playing media. The small font size is really annoying when sitting far away. Is there a way to increase the system font size in OS X?

Answer 1

There's no built in systemwide means of adjusting the font scaling, short of running at a lower than native Resolution. In general, OS X is a fairly poor choice for everyday use at a distance of 10 feet from the screen. That said, you have a few options:

You can increase font sizes on an app by app basis. The main one you'll be concerned with, it seems, is Safari, where you can adjust the default display fonts for web pages under Preferences->Appearance, and on any given page, you can adjust the displayed fonts on any given page you are viewing with ⌘+.

You can also make use of the built in 'Zoom' feature in OS X. To enable this, under System Preferences, go to Universal Access and turn on 'Zoom'. This will enable you to zoom in on a portion of your screen at greatly increased magnification with a keyboard shortcut. Some people love this, but I find it slightly disorienting.

You might also want to investigate whether one of the systemwide 'theming' apps will work for you. The only one I know to work currently with 10.6 is ThemePark. You can probably find more info to assist you in taking this approach over at the MacThemes Forums, but be advised that this sort of 'UI skinning' tends to be frowned on by Apple and break frequently. It's something of a high maintenance option.

Finally, if you're really just concerned with home-theatre type usage here, you might want to look into any of the many FrontRow replacement apps out there that offer better support for Hulu, Vimeo, Pandora et al. Some of the major names in this field are Plex, Boxee and XBMC.

Answer 2

Apple doesn't provide the capability, but third party apps might. You could try TinkerTool which has a Fonts tab that lets you modify system fonts. I haven't personally used it for fonts (although I do use it to change other things like Finder prefs) so I can't say whether it works or not.

Answer 3

Are you talking about Finder windows? If so, here's how:

1. Open a new Finder window.
2. Choose View > Show View Options from the menu bar (or press ⌘J).
3. In the "Text size" pulldown, choose whatever font size works for you.
4. Click the "Use as defaults" button at the bottom.

Which should just work…

Answer 4

I could have sworn there used to be a preference to do this before, but I can't find it - perhaps a more able SuperUser-ee will know where it went. There are a couple of things you can do, though:

• Try turning off LCD font smoothing, either entirely or for a higher threshold in the Appearance section of System Preferences.
• Switch to a lower resolution in the Displays section of System Preferences. This will make everything bigger, at the expense of lower graphics fidelity.
• Turn on screen zoom in the Seeing tab of the Universal Access section of System Preferences. Again, this will make everything bigger, but can be turned on and off as necessary.
• Some applications have specific accessibility options: for instance, the advanced tab of Safari's preferences allows you to set a minimum font size that will be used, regardless of what a website requests.