The VideoLAN Forums

Hi folks,
how can I change the font in the playlist. It is too small and effort to read. I want to be able to read it from the sofa (and not 10 cm from the screen, or with a magnifying glass ). The best to change font itself (I'm clearly better with Georgia than with the standard font Lucida Mucia ).

You can increase the font size with an interface setting. But its only possible with one step, I am not sure that it will be enough for you.

Unfortunately, VLC is not designed to be used from larger distance on the sofa. But there are other programs which present all media in fullscreen in a TV-compatible way, with large text.

dfuhrmann-

Will VLC ever offer a solution for increasing the font size of the playlist, so indeed one could view a music playlist from a larger distance, such as from the sofa?

It would be extremely useful to many people.

Hi,

I still have some Problems to with VLC playlist on Mac. I cannot reed it from Monitor on 1.5-2 Meter distance (ok, i need a lot of concentration to read it and I want to be able to read it relaxes.). It make that playlist useless for me.

Like I have heard VLC for Windows and Linux was mad in QT. Why for Mac there was used that castrated interface??

You are free to compile and test VLC on Mac with the Qt interface. Then you might notice that it is by far worse than the current Mac interface, just saying...

For me it will be good i I can change the font size im Setting. But I don't know how to do it with that Version.
Design itself is good, but if i become headache after 30 Min of using it.... it's not so gut. Please make Interface Font changeable. I am not so good in OSX programing, I write normally programs for windows and android. There I can write a code, that make a changes and it is easy, maybe with Xcode you can do it too.I had tested the Xcode, but after some hours closed it. Xcode and Objective C is too uncomfortable for me. Please put that settings in VLC for Mac.

I will check it wit QT Version, if it the same design like in Windows or Linux I will better use it.

I want to apologize if something sounded bad. I want to offend anyone. it's just the problem when you can not use an important function in your favorite player, because the stupid Interface setting and muss search for other applications that enlarge either the full screen and thereby of worsened the image quality (to zoom function), or have other critical problems.

I understand your problem. But as I said already, the current VLC version is just no media center solution and is not designed to be displayed on a display far away from the user.

Only increasing the font size of the playlist will ultimately not help at all, because all other menus and buttons are still to small to be used.

I understand your problem. But as I said already, the current VLC version is just no media center solution and is not designed to be displayed on a display far away from the user.

This is not a media center issue. As we get older many of us have poorer eyesight. The playlist and controls are difficult to see. Even if we can see the controls it strains our eyes and damages our eyesight, speeding up our decline. To say nothing about users with genuine disabilities who can't interact reliably with such tiny fonts.

In 2019 there's no legitimate reason for an interface not to have user configurable size. Surely the health and safety of users are worth the minimal programming effort to do this.

Do you have parents? Grandparents? Are they able to use the interface comfortably? Why would you purposely release software that your own family members can't use safely without damaging their own health?

Only increasing the font size of the playlist will ultimately not help at all, because all other menus and buttons are still to small to be used.

Then fix the menus and buttons. It doesn't have to be pretty. Ever used an iphone-only app on an ipad? You can double the dimensions and it simply scales the graphics up. Sure it's not pretty, things are pixelated. But it's usable. And dead simple to implement.

Surely the health and safety of users are worth the minimal programming effort to do this.

[...]
And dead simple to implement.

I can only assume you have no knowledge whatsoever about software developement, with such remarks. If you believe it is so easy, please send your patches, and we will happily review and merge them.

Please be assured I understand your problem. But it is very far away from easy to implement that correctly. And in the end, the Operating System should be responsible to correctly help for older persons to read the content.
In fact, macOS already has very good tools for that which equally work with the VLC UI as well.

I can only assume you have no knowledge whatsoever about software developement, with such remarks. If you believe it is so easy, please send your patches, and we will happily review and merge them.

Gladly. First transfer all your domain knowledge of the code base to me. I've been programming for over 25 years.

Don't try to shift the blame on me. It's not my fault you released broken software.

The operating system can't compensate for broken UIs. All it can do is magnify them. That's not even the same ballpark as building a UI that works correctly. Why not just put everything in 2 point font and let the user sort it out?

Again, there's no excuse in 2019 for not having user resizable fonts. "It's too hard, I don't want to do it" doesn't cut it. For a personal project with 1000 users, sure, free pass. For a globally recognized project with millions of users, it's simply unforgivable.

Be better. Make great software.

Sorry, it is the operating system's obligation to render text at a readable size for the user. Apple recognized this in recent releases to iOS. Therefore, on iOS, we already support dynamic font sizing for subtitles and GUI contents. So far, they did not port this feature to the Mac, but it is exactly what you want. Set the font size at a central location in System settings and be capable of reading text everywhere. As soon as Apple enables this feature on the Mac, we will be very happy to support it.

From a 68 year old user: I came here to say the same but found it is a Known Issue (That No One Cares Enough To Fix). Beyond age discrimination, the MAC system DOES NOT Compensate for this.

On EVERY non-graphic page, "Alt-+" increases display font. BUT NOT IN VLC.

Can you please become compatible with a basic Mac usability function?

You have such a good product. I don't think I have any software that does not accept ALT+ and ALT-, except VLC.