When
Apple introduced the sparse, clean iOS 7 design that lives on in iOS 9,
thousands blogged out in dismay. “It’s too lightweight! The fonts are
too spindly! The background is too bright! There aren’t rectangles
around buttons—we don’t know what’s a button and what’s not! The Control
Center is transparent—we can’t read it! You moved our cheese—we hate
this!”
Well,
Apple may not agree with you about the super-lightweight design. But at
least it has given you the options to “fix” it. You can make the type
bigger and bolder, the colors heavier, the background dimmer. You can
restore outlines around buttons. And so much more.
All of these options await in Settings->General->Accessibility.
Larger Text
This
option is the central control panel for iOS’s Dynamic Type feature.
It’s a game-changer if you, a person with several decades of life
experience, often find type on the screen too small.
Using
the slider, you can choose a larger type size for all text the iPhone
displays in apps like Mail, iBooks, Messages, and so on. This slider
doesn’t affect all the world’s other apps—until their software companies
update them to make them Dynamic Type–compatible. That day, when it
comes, will be glorious; one slider to scale them all!
TIP: The
switch at the top, Larger Accessibility Sizes, unlocks an even longer
slider. That is, it makes it possible for you to make the text in all
the Dynamic Type–compatible apps even larger.
Bold Text
In
iOS 9, the system font is fairly light. Its strokes are very thin; in
some sizes and lighting conditions, it can even be hard to read.
But
if you turn on Bold Text (and then tap Continue in the confirmation
box), your iPhone restarts—and when it comes to, the fonts everywhere
are slightly heavier: at the Home screen, in email, everywhere. And much
easier to read with low light or aging eyesight.
It’s one of the most useful features in iOS—and something almost nobody knows about.
Button Shapes
Among
the criticisms of iOS’s design these days: You can’t tell what’s a
button anymore! Everything is just words floating on the screen, without
border rectangles to tell you what’s tappable!
That’s not quite
true; any text in blue type is a tappable button. But never mind that;
if you want shapes around your buttons, you shall have them—when you
turn on this switch (below, right).
Increase Contrast
There are three switches in here. Reduce Transparency
adds opacity to screens like the Control Center and the Notification
Center. Their backgrounds are now solid, rather than slightly
see-through, so that text on them is much easier to read. (You can see
the before and after here.)
Darken Colors
makes type in some spots a little darker and heavier. You notice it in
the fonts for buttons, in the Calendar, and in Safari, for example.
Finally, Reduce White Point tones down the whiteness of iOS 8’s screens, making them slightly dimmer and less harsh.
Reduce Motion
What
kind of killjoy would want to turn off the subtle “parallax motion” of
the Home screen background behind your icons, or the zooming-in
animation when you open an app?
In any case, you can if you want, thanks to this button.
On/Off Labels
The
Settings app teems with little tappable on/off switches, including this
one. When something is turned on, the background of the switch is
green; when it’s off, the background is white.
But
if you’re having trouble remembering that distinction, turn on this
option. Now the background of each switch sprouts visible symbols to
help you remember that green means On (you see a | marking) and white
means Off.
Together, these options go a long way toward restoring readability to your iPhone or iPad.
If
you’re 25, well, you may not need any of these tweaks. But odds are
pretty good that you’ll be 40 someday, and you’ll be glad you knew about
them!
Adapted from iPhone: The Missing Manual, 9th Edition (covering iOS 9 and the iPhone 6s), by David Pogue.
