Magnifying the screen

In addition to enlarging the text in your web browser it is also possible to use electronic magnifying glasses to zoom in on areas of the screen to make it easier to read small text or to get a closer look at the images.

Most PC’s and Macintosh computers will have screen magnifiers built in, but alternative ones are also available to download - sometimes even for free.

  Accessing Windows XP built in magnifier

From the Start menu: Select, Programs > Accessories > Accessibility > Magnifier

You can now magnify a portion of the screen up to 9 times the normal size. There’s also the option to invert the colours in the magnified area to make it easier to read text on for example a low contrasting background.

  Accessing Mac OS X built in magnifier

From the Apple menu: Select, System Preferences> Universal Access > Seeing

From here you can activate the zoom function which lets you zoom up to 40 times normal size (depending of version). There’s also the option to “Switch to White on Black” to make it easier to read text on for example a low contrasting background.

Note that the Universal access options will look slightly different depending on what version of Mac OS X you have but the core functions should be the same. 

Alternative screen magnifiers

Free downloadable screen magnifer for Windows

Downloadable screen magnifier for Windows

Free, really simple downloadable screen magnifier for windows