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Making the Screen Easier to Read
Q. Is there a way to view all pale gray type as black on the computer? Sad to say, we are not all 19 years old with perfect sight!
A. Between the settings you can adjust in most web browsers and the accessibility features built into the computer’s operating system, you should be able to make low-contrast type more readable. For example, you can override the font choices and colors chosen by website designers to make the pages easier on the eyes in Mozilla Firefox by tinkering with the program’s settings; Firefox add-ons like NoSquint may also help. Other browsers, including Apple’s Safari browser, Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Edge programs, have settings for font size and style as well.
For a quick font-size adjustment, most browsers let you enlarge the text on the page by pressing the Control (Windows) or Command (Mac) key along with the plus (+) key. You can zoom back out by pressing Control/Command and the minus (-) key or Control/Command and the 0 key to reset the page type to its normal size.
To enhance your web-reading experience, you might try “reader mode” settings built into your browser. While the tool may not work on every page out there, this sort of feature typically declutters the webpage on screen by temporarily discarding ads and presenting the text in large, friendly type. Firefox calls the mode Reader View, Safari calls it Reader and Edge calls it Reading View. Chrome has an experimental tool called DOM Distiller that offers the same stripped-down look and third-party browser extensions like Readability and other accessibility add-ons from the Chrome Store can also simplify pages for better browsing.
If it is not just certain pages in the web browser you find hard to read, you can also make more global adjustments for the whole operating system. As with previous editions, the current versions of Windows and Mac OS X include Accessibility settings for high-contrast screen colors, magnifiers and more.
Personal Tech invites questions about computer-based technology to techtip@nytimes.com. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually.
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