How to make text and icons bigger on your screen

Small text is tiring. You lean in, you squint, and by the afternoon your eyes ache. The good news is that both Windows 11 and macOS have settings to make things bigger, and they take less than a minute to change.

There are really three different things you might want, and it helps to know which one you are after:

• Bigger text only. The words get larger, but pictures and buttons stay the same.
• Bigger everything. Text, icons and buttons all grow together.
• Zoom. You magnify part of the screen when you need a closer look, then turn it off again.

You can change any of these back at any time, so feel free to try them out.

Make text bigger on Windows 11

Option 1: Make only the text bigger

This is the gentlest change. It makes the words larger in Windows and in most apps, and leaves everything else alone.

1. Open Start › Settings › Accessibility. A quicker way is to press Windows + U.
2. Click Text size.
3. Drag the Text size slider to the right. The sample text above it grows as you drag.
4. Click Apply.

If it is still too small, repeat the steps and drag the slider a little further.

Option 2: Make everything bigger

Scaling makes text, icons, buttons and apps all larger at once. It is the best choice if the whole screen feels tiny, which is common on a laptop with a sharp, high-resolution display.

1. Press Windows + I to open Settings.
2. Click System, then Display.
3. Under Scale & layout, open the Scale menu.
4. Choose a bigger percentage, such as 125% or 150%.

Most things change right away. Some apps need you to close and reopen them, and a few ask you to sign out and back in before they catch up.

Option 3: Zoom in when you need to

Magnifier zooms in on any part of the screen. Press Windows + + (the plus key) to open it. Press Windows + + again to zoom in further, or Windows + - to zoom back out.

Make text bigger on a Mac

Option 1: Make the text bigger

On a Mac you can set one preferred text size for the desktop, the sidebars in your apps and several Apple apps.

1. Click the Apple menu, then System Settings.
2. Click Accessibility in the sidebar, then Display.
3. Scroll down to Text and click Text size.
4. Drag the slider to the right.

The same window lists a number of apps. If you want one of them to use a different size, click the pop-up menu next to its name and pick a size.

Option 2: Make single apps bigger

• Mail, Calendar, Messages and News: press Command + + to enlarge the text and Command + - to shrink it.
• Safari: press Command + + to enlarge the text only. Add Option (so Option + Command + +) to enlarge everything on the page, pictures included.

Option 3: Bigger icons on the desktop and Dock

• Desktop icons: Control-click an empty spot on the desktop and choose Show View Options. There you can change the icon size and the text size.
• The Dock: open System Settings › Desktop & Dock and drag the Size slider to the right.

Option 4: Zoom in when you need to

Open System Settings › Accessibility › Zoom to set up Zoom. Once it is on, you can turn it on and off with Option + Command + 8. While it is on, the plus and minus keys, or a scroll gesture, change how much it magnifies.

A quick fix for one website

If only a web page is too small, you don't need to change any settings. In most browsers, hold Ctrl and press + on Windows, or hold Command and press + on a Mac. Press the minus key instead to make it smaller again.

Which option should you pick?

• Only the words are hard to read: use the text size slider.
• The whole screen looks small: use Scale on Windows, or the Display text size on a Mac, and try the Dock and desktop sizes too.
• You just need a close look at something now and then: use Magnifier or Zoom.

If things look too big or too blurry afterwards, go back to the same setting and move the slider or percentage down one step.

Or ask Key to do it

If you would rather not hunt through menus, you can simply ask Key. It is a free assistant for Windows and Mac that opens your settings and changes them, then tells you what it did. You can speak to it or type, and both give the same result. Half a sentence is enough, for example "Make the text bigger."

KeyVoice

Make the text bigger

opened the display settingsmade the text size largerlooked at the screen to see the change

I made the text bigger, and you can ask for more if it is still too small.

Checked: the text size setting now shows a larger size.

While it works, Key shows a small panel so you can watch what it is doing, and you can stop it at any point. When it finishes, it reads the result back before it tells you it is done. If it could not check, it says so.

Not sure it came out right? Say "a bit bigger" or "back to how it was" and ask again. For other settings you can ask for in the same way, see how to change brightness, dark mode and other settings by voice.

If it still looks wrong

• Some apps still look small. Close the app and open it again. On Windows, signing out and back in can also help.
• Things look blurry. Try a smaller scale, one step down, and see if it gets sharper.
• Windows get cut off. A very high scale on a small screen leaves less room. Pick the next size down.

A few minutes spent on this can make everything you do on the computer easier on your eyes.

Related guide: How to stop your screen from turning off or your PC from sleeping

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