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I have an eye condition the main symptom of which is misty / blurred vision, possibly similar to having cataracts. The only possible treatment for this is a corneal graft. In addition I have the usual visual problems of getting older and use varifocal lenses, plus reading glasses, computer glasses, and even walking glasses.
I have always found it difficult to see the graphics on mobile phones, especially outside in daylight. I was very impressed then with my son's iPhone. Quite apart from the wonderful apps you can get I could actually see the icons and most of the other text. I got myself one and am still impressed.
My PC is getting on a bit and iTunes (which I already had) wouldn't recognise my iPhone so I ended up registering / syncing it with John's Macbook Pro. This means I get his emails and he gets my iPhone photos.
Current situation:
I am due a new computer and the sensible thing seems to be to get a Mac. I had thought about getting a large monitor for use at home, which could double as a TV or for watching DVDS, and combining this with a smaller Macbook than the Pro, for ease of taking around on our travels.
The irony is that although the iPhone graphics are brilliant I find the graphics on the Macbook really hard to see. Icons are small and text is pale in colour with little contrast. I know you can change the resolution but this causes its own problems.
What I am wondering is if I'll get used to the Mac graphics and whether the advantages will outweigh the disadvantage for me. I also wonder whether anyone else out there experiences the same problem and has found ways to overcome it.
We did go to an Apple shop in Manchester and they were really helpful in showing us how to change the resolution and explaining that accessibility issues can be addressed with voice over. Wouldn't it be much easier, for many of us to actually improve the graphics?
Did the 'genius' at the mac shop show you this trick?:
hold down 'fn' & 'control' together; whilst doing this, drag 2 fingers up the track pad.
(zooms in, towards the cursor)
still holding fn & control; drag 2 fingers down the track pad.
(zooms back out)
A very useful and not widely known shortcut.
Apart from changing the resolution I can't remember the details of other things he showed us. I was focussing on thinking 'Can I see this OK or not?' At the time I came to the conclusion that I'd go ahead but when I've used John's Macbook since and changed the resolution I'm still straining and struggling to see. Unless I'm going to a particularly poor website I don't have this problem with my PC.
I'm not sure why you say that a Mac is 'the sensible thing'? If the reason is to do with the screen, you would be as well off going into any PC retailer and looking at the range of screens available.
I've just bought a new laptop after Port got spilt on the old one - this is a HP and the screen is much brighter and clearer than our 3 year old Dell was; it also has a glossy look (more like iPhone, I think), rather than the matte look on the other - this appears to help with the sharpness.
So, if the problem is to so with the brightness, clarity or size of the screen, that's easily resolved - on a Windows PC there are various settings to help with 'accessibility' (eg a magnifier for a portion of the screen), and I would be surprised if this were not the case on a Mac. If it is the actual design of the icons etc, then I'm sure there are ways around that without necessarily buying a new PC/Mac, or which would work if you do buy new.
If you have any contact with a visual impairment charity, you will probably find someone there has found a solution, or workaround, or just has soem experience to share which might help you find ayour solution.
There are now many laptops with LED backlighting, as used on the new Ultra Thin Samsung TVs. These give a very bright even backlight with massive contrast. Makes even the dullest icon stand out.
Gerry
I can't really answer your question but there's something you should be aware of; lcd screens have what is called a native resolution, this is the resolution they are designed to be run at, this is always the maximum resolution that the screen supports. don't be tempted to use an lcd screen at a lower resolution than its native resolution (to make items larger)because in this scenario the picture is distorted, this can normally be seen as bluring around the edges of text. far better to use the screen at the native resolution and then use the operating system tools to increase the size of items, for example windows allows you to change the DPI settings for fonts etc and i'm sure MACs will have the same, you would need to experiment with this and keep checking image quality. another thing which may help is comparing the native resolution between monitors of equal size, for example there could be two 19 inch monitors, obviously they are the same physical size, but one could have a lower native resolution, the lower resolutioned screen will display items larger whilst still using the native resolution, additionally the screen with the lower resolution will be cheaper as it's cheaper to produce etc.
I've got a MacBook Pro which is a couple of years old now, this has LED backlighting and can be made very [too] bright if you want and as already stated there are ways to cope with visual impairment etc.
The 'dock' icons at the bottom of the screen can also be magnified.
When viewing folders [directories] etc you can view in icon mode or text etc.
There are also options for font smoothing in 'system preferences'.
I think the problem we all face with ageing, is that the higher the resolution of a screen, the smaller the text and icons appear. My MacBook Pro has a native resolution of 1440x900 and that means things appear quite small. However, regarding clarity, I find the Mac graphics superior to that on my WinXP desktop, or indeed, any of the PCs I have had previously. The quality of the Mac Pro screens is renowned. That is why a lot of editing studios use them.
The glossy screens tend to provide higher contrast than matt ones and can therefore appear clearer. I decided against one however, as reflections can be a problem in bright light.
I also wear varifocals and know I have early symptoms of cataracts, so suffer similar problems to you. If text is too small, it is very easy on the Mac to increase the font and graphics within a selected window by pressing the Cmd and +/= key simultaneously. This increases the image in steps; pressing Cmd and - key reduces it again. Also, in Safari, the web browser, you can select the minimum font size that you want it to use, although this seems to be interpreted differently by various web sites. Hence, the advantage of easily varying the font size as mentioned earlier.
Just one point on an earlier post. The zoom function is activated by Fn & Cmd then drag two fingers on the track-pad; not Fn & Ctrl. (Cmd is the one with the Apple symbol and curly cross on it.)
Location: Brimington, Chesterfield, Derbyshire and Acharavi, Greece
Status: Offline
Hi, I have very recently had my cataracts done and I was in the same position as you before, I did get a Mac but it was not the basic macbook it was the Pro and I find the graphics far superior to the basic macbook, I think the difference is that the Pro has a HD screen and is extremely clear to see, I have now had my eyes done it is far better than I have ever experienced.
By the way the command to zoom in IS the fn + ctrl and NOT as in last post fn + cmd as this just scrolls the screen, It is on mine anyway but it sounds as though some others may be different.
______________________________________________________________ Travel Safe
Les
Location: Brimington, Chesterfield, Derbyshire and Acharavi, Greece
Status: Offline
Hi, I have very recently had my cataracts done and I was in the same position as you before, I did get a Mac but it was not the basic macbook it was the Pro and I find the graphics far superior to the basic macbook, I think the difference is that the Pro has a HD screen and is extremely clear to see, I have now had my eyes done it is far better than I have ever experienced.
By the way the command to zoom in IS the fn + ctrl and NOT as in last post fn + cmd as this just scrolls the screen, It is on mine anyway but it sounds as though some others may be different.
______________________________________________________________ Travel Safe
Les
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