Are you irked by tiny fonts? Find them unnecessarily exclusionary? Wish you could tell tiny font people to increase their sizes, even a little bit?
I’m here for you! I just had my eyes “done” via cataract surgery and still, the tiny fonts are impossible to see. All sorts of people have sight impairments. The tiny font people don’t take them into account.
Feel free to share, download, snip, or copy this meme and paste in anywhere you see tiny fonts.
We need to let tiny font people know they’re not getting through to many of us. And maybe they’ll realize that they won’t always be tiny font people, either.
The general rule-of-thumb recommendation is to use 12 to 14 point fonts. Anything smaller is sometimes viewed as unprofessional and dismissive of those with vision impairment. And on a phone’s little screen? Forget about it. Remember, tiny font people, your tiny fonts are minuscule on the phone.
Thank you, my larger fonted friends. Together, we will spread the word about the damage done by tiny fonts.
Lisa, this post couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Just this week, my cellphone’s operating system was updated and the new battery level number, a very important piece of information, is so small I can’t make it out without putting on my reading glasses. It’s very frustrating.
While I’m at it, I’m calling out ESPN for their baseball graphics. I can just about read the score, but all the other information we’ve become used to is completely imperceptible to me. I have no problem with Sportsnet’s graphics on the Blue Jays game. Take note ESPN!
Rant over. Thanks for letting me vent.
I hear you, Rich! This is why every production team needs someone over the age of forty!!
Good heavens Lisa, how could you tell I’m (well) over forty? 😀
It takes one to know one?!
Even though I’m what some call totally blind, I’m also old school having learned business writing on a manual Underwood typewriter and although it doesn’t make any difference to my screen reader the size of the font, my default font size has always been 12 point and if I copy materials from different sources I will first paste it into a document and immediately change the font before sending it out.
On smart phones you can adjust the default font size which you can set to override anything you receive. Within a Browser you can also set the default font size for everything you view and in both cases the default for everything you create or write. Unfortunately updates will often reset your defaults but you can go back in and set them again, yes it’s a pain in the ass but then so are Tiny Font People.
I do pay attention to those who may read that which I write and there are technical solutions right at hand.
Thanks, Allan! I refuse to change my settings or pinch and expand every time I see a ridiculously tiny font. If they don’t want me and my ilk to see it, I’m happy to move on!
I feel attacked haha. Some wording on my skin care bottles is size 4 font! It’s the smallest Health Canada would allow at the time, or you have to do an outer container like a box. They don’t really care if customers can read that small of a font, only that the ingredients are listed somewhere. A big part of me leans towards an outer package but the other part needs to keep cost in mind.
Well there are some fun facts I didn’t know! But I’m really talking about people who put up captions on their Instagram or whatever, and just make them so small. They’re illegible. Because I wear hearing aids, I prefer to read captions than listen most of the time. So it’s all about me!
I absolutely agree, Lisa. A solution that works for me is an app called “Social Fixer.”
I read about it in the Toronto Star many years ago. Then, I asked a few tech people I know if they’ve ever heard of it, and they highly recommend it.
I downloaded it, and voila! I seriously could not use Facebook without it. My page now is customized to my liking (including font size.) I see no ads, either. I have not used it on a phone because I don’t have one, (except for the one on my wall) but it’s works beautifully on my laptop.
It sounds complicated, but believe me, if I can use it, anybody can. They also have a FB page with 24/7 help if you need to ask a question.
That’s a great tip – thanks for sharing it, Claire!