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This doesn't address the author's central argument, which is that websites need an effortless way of letting fonts become bigger without affecting the entire la

This doesn't address the author's central argument, which is that websites need an effortless way of letting fonts become bigger without affecting the entire layout. I've wanted it too. I don't really care if some text gets cut off on headers and looks weird, I just want to read stuff from the comfort of my bed with my laptop a few feet away.

stronglikedan 6y ago
I love that Chrome on Android lets me zoom into any content on any site, regardless of how bad the devs borked the UX. (Yes, devs, if you don't allow me to zoom using the browser's built-in capabilities, you have borked the UX, and should be ashamed of yourselves.)
- KLexpat 6y ago
  If you have a windows 10 laptop, pinching on the touchpad seems to give you the same zoom functionality now. vastly superior than the one built into the browser
- Robotbeat 6y ago
  I didn’t know this! And inability to do this is a huge pet peeve (as well as not being able to zoom OUT and get a desktop-like view on my phone). Does this work on any browser for iPhone?
  - falcolas 6y ago
    Just confirmed it works on Firefox and Safari. Though I seem to recall seeing some sites which break that functionality with CSS.
- Aerroon 6y ago
  This is one of the main reasons I prefer using a website on my phone as opposed to an app. Some apps allow me to zoom others don't. The browsers lets me do that regardless.
- ficklepickle 6y ago
  Unless its, say, a mapping web app. In which case, pinch-zoom adjusts the canvas map zoom, allowing regular zoom would actually break the UX. I agree though, let me zoom on a blog post. The diagrams are often unreadable on mobile.
- efreak 6y ago
  If you're using a mobile browser on Android that doesn't allow overriding websites that disable zoom (or using a website that defines font sizes in vw/vh), check your accessibility settings, there should be a shortcut for triple-tap to enable a zoom function. Some devices have other magnifying functions as well. My tablets and phone all have the basic magnifier function; my LineageOS (android 7 & 8) tablets additionally have a screen zoom/dpi setting to modify how large both pictures and text appear, and my samsung tablet (Android 10) has this and also a text zoom function. There's also a minimum view width setting in developer options since at least Android 8, to ensure interfaces aren't too small on mobile (this only goes one way though-- there's no maximum view width and no height controls). It doesn't help with everything, but the triple-tap zoom is quite useful.
altcognito 6y ago
This was tried in the mid-late oughts was it not? It is nearly impossible to logically derive what should increase in sized and what should not. Should the space given to sidebars increase? Should those sidebars disappear? What about headers and footers? How will the overfloat be treated? A single line, double lines? What about captions underneath images? How do you handle text that happens to be embedded within images themselves, or even on top of images? "I don't care if headers look weird" It goes beyond things looking weird, it really does break websites.
- nofunsir 6y ago
  God forbid we use the scroll bar.
  - pc86 6y ago
    Nobody's suggesting we not use it, and honestly I don't even know what this needlessly rude comment means in the context of the larger discussion. Given that we're increasing the text 2x or 3x, it's an important question whether or not we're also increasing the width of the scrollbar 2x or 3x.
  - richardwhiuk 6y ago
    Horizontal scrolling perform disastrously badly in UX testing.
matsemann 6y ago
That's how zooming (ctrl+scroll) in the browser used to work: It increased font sizes. It has been abandoned because it just wreaks havoc on the layout and is impossible to handle properly.
- oneeyedpigeon 6y ago
  It was so standard, it wasn't even called "zooming", because it wasn't. It was called "increase text size". It worked well for most reasonable sites, certainly a lot better than an actual zoom typically does.
- falcolas 6y ago
  It's still an option in Firefox. In the general preferences, a checkbox titled "Zoom text only".
pc86 6y ago
> I just want to read stuff from the comfort of my bed with my laptop a few feet away. That's not what laptops are for. I think that's a typical snide HN/Stack Overflow-type answer, and I don't mean it rudely, but it does have some bearing on this conversation. What's the intended form factor of a laptop? What are the top 10 intended form factors? I'm not sure "reading from 'a few' [several] feet away, while I'm laying down in bed" is in that top 10 list. Are there devices better suited to that form factor? I don't know.
- HPsquared 6y ago
  Until 2020, it was probably uncommon. Not so sure now.
- funcDropShadow 6y ago
  > What's the intended form factor of a laptop? What are the top 10 intended form factors? Isn't the real questions why we allow devices or their makers to decide the "intended use-cases" and accept that many other use-cases are often near impossible. The PC revolution was about a general purpose computers, and laptops should imho still be general purpose computers; not machines for which some overlord in Mountainview or Cupertino checks on every button pressed whether I am allowed to do what I intend to do. Politics aside, I am the only one who has the impression that with every new release of macOS or Firefox features get removed, that enabled me to personalize and optimize my workflows before?
- Talanes 6y ago
  >What's the intended form factor of a laptop? What are the top 10 intended form factors? I'm not sure "reading from 'a few' [several] feet away, while I'm laying down in bed" is in that top 10 list. I mean, I guess less so now that everyone has phones and maybe an e-reader, but... that's not such a weird use case. That's basically how I spent the later half of high school.
- mjevans 6y ago
  A laptop or phone 'casting' to a wide screen TV.
jakub_g 6y ago
FYI desktop Firefox has "Zoom Text Only" feature. View > Zoom > Zoom Text Only On mobile: all browsers have "force enable zoom" + test scaling in accessibility settings; Additionally Opera supports reflow on zoom (Settings > Text options > "Text wrap").
- Izkata 6y ago
  I like how it's now a "feature". This is what zoom originally did, and "full zoom" was the feature.
reaperducer 6y ago
I don't really care if some text gets cut off on headers and looks weird, I just want to read stuff from the comfort of my bed with my laptop a few feet away. How is a web site supposed to know if you're someone sitting in bed with the screen a few feet away, or someone sitting at a desk with a screen a few inches away? That's on the user. Learn how to use your browser, device, and operating system's zoom features.
cratermoon 6y ago
I just have bad eyes. I complained once about text size here and a lot of people just said, "use your browser zoom", completely ignoring how layouts not scale or reflow.

stronglikedan 6y ago

I love that Chrome on Android lets me zoom into any content on any site, regardless of how bad the devs borked the UX. (Yes, devs, if you don't allow me to zoom using the browser's built-in capabilities, you have borked the UX, and should be ashamed of yourselves.)

KLexpat 6y ago
If you have a windows 10 laptop, pinching on the touchpad seems to give you the same zoom functionality now. vastly superior than the one built into the browser
Robotbeat 6y ago
I didn’t know this! And inability to do this is a huge pet peeve (as well as not being able to zoom OUT and get a desktop-like view on my phone). Does this work on any browser for iPhone?
- falcolas 6y ago
  Just confirmed it works on Firefox and Safari. Though I seem to recall seeing some sites which break that functionality with CSS.
Aerroon 6y ago
This is one of the main reasons I prefer using a website on my phone as opposed to an app. Some apps allow me to zoom others don't. The browsers lets me do that regardless.
ficklepickle 6y ago
Unless its, say, a mapping web app. In which case, pinch-zoom adjusts the canvas map zoom, allowing regular zoom would actually break the UX. I agree though, let me zoom on a blog post. The diagrams are often unreadable on mobile.
efreak 6y ago
If you're using a mobile browser on Android that doesn't allow overriding websites that disable zoom (or using a website that defines font sizes in vw/vh), check your accessibility settings, there should be a shortcut for triple-tap to enable a zoom function. Some devices have other magnifying functions as well. My tablets and phone all have the basic magnifier function; my LineageOS (android 7 & 8) tablets additionally have a screen zoom/dpi setting to modify how large both pictures and text appear, and my samsung tablet (Android 10) has this and also a text zoom function. There's also a minimum view width setting in developer options since at least Android 8, to ensure interfaces aren't too small on mobile (this only goes one way though-- there's no maximum view width and no height controls). It doesn't help with everything, but the triple-tap zoom is quite useful.

altcognito 6y ago

This was tried in the mid-late oughts was it not? It is nearly impossible to logically derive what should increase in sized and what should not. Should the space given to sidebars increase? Should those sidebars disappear? What about headers and footers? How will the overfloat be treated? A single line, double lines? What about captions underneath images? How do you handle text that happens to be embedded within images themselves, or even on top of images? "I don't care if headers look weird" It goes beyond things looking weird, it really does break websites.

nofunsir 6y ago
God forbid we use the scroll bar.
- pc86 6y ago
  Nobody's suggesting we not use it, and honestly I don't even know what this needlessly rude comment means in the context of the larger discussion. Given that we're increasing the text 2x or 3x, it's an important question whether or not we're also increasing the width of the scrollbar 2x or 3x.
- richardwhiuk 6y ago
  Horizontal scrolling perform disastrously badly in UX testing.

matsemann 6y ago

That's how zooming (ctrl+scroll) in the browser used to work: It increased font sizes. It has been abandoned because it just wreaks havoc on the layout and is impossible to handle properly.

oneeyedpigeon 6y ago
It was so standard, it wasn't even called "zooming", because it wasn't. It was called "increase text size". It worked well for most reasonable sites, certainly a lot better than an actual zoom typically does.
falcolas 6y ago
It's still an option in Firefox. In the general preferences, a checkbox titled "Zoom text only".

pc86 6y ago

> I just want to read stuff from the comfort of my bed with my laptop a few feet away. That's not what laptops are for. I think that's a typical snide HN/Stack Overflow-type answer, and I don't mean it rudely, but it does have some bearing on this conversation. What's the intended form factor of a laptop? What are the top 10 intended form factors? I'm not sure "reading from 'a few' [several] feet away, while I'm laying down in bed" is in that top 10 list. Are there devices better suited to that form factor? I don't know.

HPsquared 6y ago
Until 2020, it was probably uncommon. Not so sure now.
funcDropShadow 6y ago
> What's the intended form factor of a laptop? What are the top 10 intended form factors? Isn't the real questions why we allow devices or their makers to decide the "intended use-cases" and accept that many other use-cases are often near impossible. The PC revolution was about a general purpose computers, and laptops should imho still be general purpose computers; not machines for which some overlord in Mountainview or Cupertino checks on every button pressed whether I am allowed to do what I intend to do. Politics aside, I am the only one who has the impression that with every new release of macOS or Firefox features get removed, that enabled me to personalize and optimize my workflows before?
Talanes 6y ago
>What's the intended form factor of a laptop? What are the top 10 intended form factors? I'm not sure "reading from 'a few' [several] feet away, while I'm laying down in bed" is in that top 10 list. I mean, I guess less so now that everyone has phones and maybe an e-reader, but... that's not such a weird use case. That's basically how I spent the later half of high school.
mjevans 6y ago
A laptop or phone 'casting' to a wide screen TV.

jakub_g 6y ago

FYI desktop Firefox has "Zoom Text Only" feature. View > Zoom > Zoom Text Only On mobile: all browsers have "force enable zoom" + test scaling in accessibility settings; Additionally Opera supports reflow on zoom (Settings > Text options > "Text wrap").

Izkata 6y ago
I like how it's now a "feature". This is what zoom originally did, and "full zoom" was the feature.

reaperducer 6y ago

I don't really care if some text gets cut off on headers and looks weird, I just want to read stuff from the comfort of my bed with my laptop a few feet away. How is a web site supposed to know if you're someone sitting in bed with the screen a few feet away, or someone sitting at a desk with a screen a few inches away? That's on the user. Learn how to use your browser, device, and operating system's zoom features.

cratermoon 6y ago

I just have bad eyes. I complained once about text size here and a lot of people just said, "use your browser zoom", completely ignoring how layouts not scale or reflow.