Large type

[rjtiess at juno.com]

One more idea:  The Windows 95/98 Display defaults
to "small fonts" (96 dpi) on installation.  Most users don't
change this, but you can effectively increase visibility of
Windows dialog box/menu components by going into
Control Panel, clicking Display (or right click on Desktop,
select display), then go to Settings.  There you can select
Large Fonts or enter a customized settings.  If set too
high, windows, particularly titles and prompts, may look
well, but you can adjust it enough to make standard text
look better.  Also, if you click on the Appearance tab you
can select other fonts in alternative to the current/system 
font in use.  With respect to web browsers, this settings
will likely affect only the textual interface, not the buttons.

This also reminds me:  If you DEactivate font smoothing,
fonts around 10 pts and smaller will actually look
_better_, as they're no longer being antialised with the
background.  To do this, click on your Plus tab (if you
have one; depends on your setup) and uncheck
Font Smoothing.  The price is bigger fonts once again
become jagged.

Also worth noting is that PDF documents (via Adobe
Acrobat) are zoomable.

Font resizing is also an area that can be addressed through
Cascading Style Sheets/DTDs, which could ease
development of "large print" editions of websites by
globalizing font settings so recoding each document is
no longer necessary.  But, CSS only recently achieved
support and not every patron/user may have a CSS-
enabled browser, which nullifies this, for the moment, as
a prime option.

Two more thoughts:  A.  Increase the mouse arrow size
too for maximum visibility (Control Panel, Mouse, Pointers,
selecting Extra Large).  There are other pointers you
can download off the net.  B.  Slowing the mouse down a
bit is also a good thing, as the default setting is usually
too fast for some older and younger patrons.  I've also
learned "mouse trails" can really tick people off, while
others (especially laptop users) consider it visual
assistance in locating the arrow.


Robert

rjtiess at warwick.net
http://members.tripod.com/~rtiess













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