any program for bad eyesight

[stalkingwolf]

In firefox you can increase the font size by going to
View > Text Size > then click Increase.

[s3a]

A quicker way to do that would be to press ctrl and move the scroll up or down to zoom in or out.

[s3a]

Not that you'd do it but a nice ~40 inch HDTV with a resolution of 1920x1080 would do very well since it has a low resolution given the large screen size, it would have huge letters, images, etc while fitting a lot of things in it!

[AndreiP1]

Hi, Cmay, I not got an answer to you qsn regards a program for ppl with bad vision - in that regards, I personally use a mac, and it's easy to enlarge anything there, but I can, however, give you and any1 else reading this a few tips on how to make sure our eyesight doesnt worsen. You can also restore your eyesight. When you work with a pc, read a book, or when you are doing anything else that requires you to stare at it for a long time, especially close up, you need look around the room, look into the distance now and again. If you do that, your eyesight will NOT get worse. Otherwise, it WILL - it's only normal, only common sense. If you do start noticing your eyesight worsening, then you can start doing more exercises - move your eyes up, down, left, right, look onto your nose etc - do this for a couple of mins once every hour or so, then close your eyes and relax. If you put your hands over your face, so that your eyes are right in the middle of your palms, with no light getting through, and stay like this for a minimum of 3 mins, then your eyes will relax and you'll see a huge improvement. It'll help a lot. If you do this, the n you'll never need to were glasses, no matter what age you are, or what work you do. Hope some1 will read this & it helps - I know, I've been there.

Andrei Petunin

[leona]

Hello, cmay.

Which version of Ubuntu are you using?

I also have very low vision, and I use the eZoom plugin which is in Compiz Fusion, and I turn on a feature for mouse-pointer scaling which makes the mouse pointer increase in size if you zoom the desktop. It si extremely helpful.

if you have Ubuntu 7.10 installed on your system, you can install CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM) to make setup a bit easier for you.

Please let me know what version of Ubuntu you are using, and maybe I can help you to get all set up.

If you have ever used programs such as ZoomText or Magic on Windows, (in my opinion) Compiz Fusion's eZoom plugin blows those programs way out of the water. It makes my life a WHOLE LOT esier. This was the thing I was waiting for to completely switch to Ubuntu, and when it arrived in v7.10, I jumped off of the Windows canoe and finally got myself a yacht.

Anyhow, take care, and please write back and et me know if I can be fo any help to you.

Hello there, I would very much like to know more about this plugin. you say its better then zoomtext? I use ZoomText at work, but can't use it at home (doesn't work under linux ), so I would like to know more about this eZoom thingy and how you enable it.
I'm using Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
I have to say though, I've found Compiz, less then stable, in previous releases, it still messes up / corrupts the screen too often.
Thank you

[Sef]

Have you tried resetting the default font sizes?

System > Preferences > Appearance > Font

[cmay]

hi.
i lost this tread .
thanks for all your help.
i have migraines sometimes and its what is giving me these problems. i am looking a lot for somethings that can help not just for me . i know peopel that have trouble reading /learning to to read and i once found a distro called blinux but i cant find it anymore google searcing and i think its maybe inactive.
i know i have a few linux converts if i can find a lot of helping tools for visual impaired or non reading peopel. thats why i post and also i get myselve these splitting headaches where i can not focuse on my eyes however for everyday use i can live very well whit fontsettings 16.
i found out in the meantime.
thanks it means a lot to me that someone has anwered my post.

[iaskedalice09]

Hello, cmay.

Which version of Ubuntu are you using?

I also have very low vision, and I use the eZoom plugin which is in Compiz Fusion, and I turn on a feature for mouse-pointer scaling which makes the mouse pointer increase in size if you zoom the desktop. It si extremely helpful.

if you have Ubuntu 7.10 installed on your system, you can install CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM) to make setup a bit easier for you.

Please let me know what version of Ubuntu you are using, and maybe I can help you to get all set up.

If you have ever used programs such as ZoomText or Magic on Windows, (in my opinion) Compiz Fusion's eZoom plugin blows those programs way out of the water. It makes my life a WHOLE LOT esier. This was the thing I was waiting for to completely switch to Ubuntu, and when it arrived in v7.10, I jumped off of the Windows canoe and finally got myself a yacht.

Anyhow, take care, and please write back and et me know if I can be fo any help to you.

Hi,

I just moved to Ubuntu and don't rely on zoom things as much but there was a time when I could not live without ZoomText being on. So for future ref, how do you install compiz fusion and eZoom? I've heard so much about the former but cannot find a d/l link and if you say ezoom is better than ZT I am anxious to see its potential. don't think I'll use it since linux finally lets me tweak the computer and things so i can see it but for reference y'know.

[meganox]

If you set the font size in Firefox, make sure to use the Advanced options and set the minimum font size, and disable the option to let pages choose their own fonts. I have my default font size in firefox at 16pt and the minimum at 13. Many pages will look crappy because they aren't written to expand to acommodate user-chosen font sizes. If you use a site like that a lot you should contact them and let them know they are ignoring important accessibility guidelines that may even be legal obligations in their country, as well as alienating possible customers.

Don't forget you can zoom text in Firefox using the Ctrl-+ and Ctrl-- hotkeys or Ctrl-mousewheel, Ctrl-0 to reset. Firefox 3 remembers the zoom level on a per-site basis so you don't need the nosquint addon anymore. To stop images zooming with the text you need to enter about:config in the address bar, type "browser-zoom-full" in the filter field and double-click it set it to false. You can also change the "zoom.maxpercent" and "zoom.minpercent" settings here.

For magnification I use Compiz with the Enhanced Zoom Desktop and Place Windows plugins. I don't use the Magnifier plug in. To get a window double-size and filling the screen I use this combo, although I may have changed the key bindings from the defaults (Super means the "Windows" key"):

Super-Keypad-5 - centres the current window (Place Windows plugin)
Super-2 - doubles the screen magnification (Zoom plugin)
Super-v - resizes the window to the current screen size, i.e. x2 (Zoom plugin). It won't be centred any more though, so...
Super-Keypad-5 to centre it again or...

Super-Keypad-N - move the window to N position on the screen, e.g. 7 is top-left, 3 is bottom-right and...
Super-r - move and rezoom to fit the current window.

In general, Super-v resizes the window to the zoom level, and Super-r will move and resize the zoomed desktop to the current window. Alt-tabbing between windows will also move the zoomed desktop between them but not resize to fit them. Don't forget Super with the mouse wheel will zoom the desktop to arbitrary values.

You can also constrain the mouse to the zoomed area and scale the mouse with the window, so It's like every application has its own double size desktop. Personally I hate it when the screen moves around as I move the mouse, although you can leave the mouse unconstrained and use the mouse panning option so the screen only moves when you hit the edge, lessening the feeling of "motion sickness"

This approach saves you messing around with font sizes in lots of different places - I would say it's impossible to get all applications set up the way you want them, too many ignore the system font settings.

Using this method I can have all windows at double size and switch between them using alt-tab or any of the application switching plugins for Compiz. To reset to 100% zoom simply hit Super-1. You can in fact customise the hotkey zoom levels too, so I have them at 100%, 75%, and 50%. 75% is good for firefox otherwise the toolbars take up too much room and many pages just won't fit in the space. The downside is I can only see the panels when I zoom out to 100%, so I miss flashing icons in the notification area.

So you don't have to use the above combo on every window you open, the Window Rules plugin lets you set the size and position of any windows you open, so you could set it up so all windows are automatically 1/2 the width and height of your display, and position them in the centre, although you'd have to do some math since it takes the top left corner as the position. This has much the same effect as setting your screen resolution to half, except your panels won't be visible so you'd have a little more screen space. There is a problem in that you can't stop the Place Windows plugin from doing smart placement (where it places new windows as far as possible from existing ones - I shall report this as a bug), and this may mess with setting up fixed window placements in the Window Rules plugin.

On the important subject of eyestrain and other computer related disorders, there is a program in the Ubuntu repos called Workrave, I highly recommend it. It is a timer that nags you to take microbreaks, rest breaks, and limit your daily computer usage. It is much smarter than other similar programs that will nag you even if you have just returned from a break. If you are bad for skipping breaks you can even set it to lock the screen, although it will let you skip or postpone a break if you absolutely must.

I take a 20 second microbreak every 5 minutes where I stand up and look out the window at the farthest thing I can see. Every 45 minutes I take a 5 minute break where I walk around and relax my upper body, or do some household chores (I work from home). My eyes no longer water, my eyelids no longer twitch, my wrist and lower back pain are gone, and I seem to get my work done faster as a result. I know computers can enhance the lives of people who are differently abled in various ways, but you must take steps to ensure they don't negatively affect your health in the long term.

Hope this helps you some, I shall watch this thread so if you need any further clarification feel free to ask, it is a lot to take in all at once. Compiz has many accessibility features but that can make it difficult to find the ones you need and configure them however suits you best.

sudo apt-get install workrave

Workrave
Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) prevention tool
Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of
Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program frequently alerts you to
take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit.

It includes a system tray applet that works with Gnome and KDE
and has network capabilities to monitor your activity even if
switching back and forth between different computers is part of your
job.

Workrave offers many more configuration options than other similar
tools.

[meganox]

Hi,

I just moved to Ubuntu and don't rely on zoom things as much but there was a time when I could not live without ZoomText being on. So for future ref, how do you install compiz fusion and eZoom? I've heard so much about the former but cannot find a d/l link and if you say ezoom is better than ZT I am anxious to see its potential. don't think I'll use it since linux finally lets me tweak the computer and things so i can see it but for reference y'know.

Compiz is already installed, if you go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Visual Effects and select "Extra" you will get more effects. You need the compiz control panel:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

will install it. You can run it with "ccsm" or it should install an icon called "Advanced Desktop Effects Settings" in your preferences menu.