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Main Area and Open Discussion => Living Room => Topic started by: techidave on July 30, 2009, 09:12 PM

Title: alternatives to windows magnifier
Post by: techidave on July 30, 2009, 09:12 PM: I have a friend who just purchased a HP Pavilion dv3-2155mx netbook. She has very poor eyesight like macular degeneration so everything has to be big in print or on screen. The netbook has a 13.3" screen with a max resolution of 1366 x 768. I can lower the resolution thus increasing the size of everything but that doesn't necessarily help that much. I know Windows Vista has a magnifier but I don't think she will like that very well.

Is there some other kind of solution that I can use to help her out? It would have to work for any screen or window that she might open.

thanks a bunch!
Title: Re: alternatives to windows magnifier
Post by: lanux128 on July 30, 2009, 10:26 PM: instead of lowering the resolution, you can increase icon & fonts size to make things look big on the screen. you can right-click on the desktop and choose 'Properties' then go to 'Appearance' tab and choose the "Font Size" and in the same tab, click on the 'Effects' button and check "Use large icons".

as for the magnifier, the one i like most is ScreenMagnifier (http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11700) by holomind at the AHK forums. there is a compiled exe as well in that thread.
Title: Re: alternatives to windows magnifier
Post by: rjbull on July 31, 2009, 04:37 AM: The author of Q-Dir also offers OneLoupe (http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Microsoft/OneLoupe) as freeware, but I have no idea whether it will be good enough for your friend.
Title: Re: alternatives to windows magnifier
Post by: techidave on July 31, 2009, 07:21 AM: I have also heard about Xoomer here (http://www.xymantix.com/programs/xoomer.html)

I will try out some of these and see how she likes it later on today.
Title: Re: alternatives to windows magnifier
Post by: techidave on July 31, 2009, 07:23 AM: In following Lanux's suggestion, I could do that and then increase the text size in IE, Word, and Outlook and see what that does for her.
Title: Re: alternatives to windows magnifier
Post by: joiwind on July 31, 2009, 11:52 AM: There is also Virtual Magnifying Glass at Sourceforge : Magnifier (http://sourceforge.net/projects/magnifier/)