How to change the font size on your iPhone

If you have eyesight issues, you may find reading what’s on your iPhone screen hard. Of course, the solution is to put on glasses, but another solution is to change the font size on your iPhone. Here’s how to do it two different ways, as well as how to activate a magnifying glass so you can get into full Sherlock Holmes mode.

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How to change the font size on your iPhone

There are two ways to change the font size on your iPhone. Either through the Display & Brightness settings or through the Accessibility settings.

Display & Brightness settings

Go to Settings > Display & Brightness. First, look at Bold Text. I always recommend people enable this. Even if you don’t have eyesight issues, it’s nice from an aesthetic perspective. Once you’ve decided on that, tap Text Size.

You will see a slider at the bottom of the screen. To increase the font size, slide your finger along it to the right. The screen will update in real-time. When you have the size you need, tap the Back button at the top to exit the screen.

In case you’re wondering, Dynamic Type is an iOS setting where apps will scale their text size based on your choice here. Not all apps support Dynamic Type, though. If one of your favorite apps doesn’t support Dynamic Type, consider contacting the app developer and asking that they begin support for it.

Accessibility settings

The other way to change the font size is to go through the Settings > Accessibility menu. Select Display & Text Size.

Again, you have the Bold Text option if you want it. To increase the text size, tap Larger Text.

Toggle on Larger Accessibility Sizes, and move the slider at the bottom to your desired font size.

How to change the font size for a specific app

If you have an app that doesn’t support Dynamic Type, one option is to increase the font size just for that one app. This neat feature lets you specify different font sizes for each app if you like. If the user interface of an app has tiny lettering, then you can bump its size up to a certain size. On the other hand, if you want to reduce the font size to get more on the screen, you can use this feature to reduce the size for another app.

Go to Settings > Control Center and ensure that Text Size is enabled in the menu. If the Text Size option has a green plus icon, tap it, so it jumps to the top of the screen.

Now go to your desired app. Swipe down from the top-right of the screen and open Control Center. Tap the Text Size icon, and this appears on top of your app. Text size 100% is the standard default size.

At the bottom, you can select whether the font size you are about to choose should apply to All Apps or only the app you have open. I have LinkedIn open in this case, so I will push the slider to LinkedIn Only. Once you’ve done that, push the white slider up and down to get your desired text size.

Now tap anywhere on the screen to exit the Text Size screen. Your app may already have the new font size applied, but if not, close the app and reopen it. You’ll now see the new size applied.

Repeat the above process to revert back, but change the font size to 100% default.

How to magnify your iPhone screen

If this all sounds like overkill to you, and you just need an occasional aid to help with difficult words, then maybe a magnifying glass might be a better option.

For this, go to Settings > Accessibility and select Zoom.

Toggle on Zoom, and a magnifying square immediately appears on-screen. Move it around, and the text and images on-screen will get bigger.

If you scroll further down the page, you’ll see further options for Zoom. Depending on your preference, there’s a slider to make the magnification smaller or larger.

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