How to change the font size on your iPhone

If you have eyesight issues, it can be hard to read an iPhone’s standard fonts. One solution is to change font size — here’s how to do it two different ways, as well as how to activate a digital magnifying glass.

How to change the font size on your iPhone

There are two ways to change the font size on your iPhone: Display and Brightness settings, or Accessibility options.

Display and Brightness

Navigate to Settings > Display and Brightness. Before going any further, you might want to enable Bold Text. Even if you don’t have eyesight problems, it can potentially be nice from an aesthetic perspective. Once you’ve decided either way, tap Text Size.

You’ll see a slider at the bottom of the screen. Slide your finger to the right to increase font size, and to the left to shrink it. The screen will update in real-time. When you’re done, tap the Back button to exit.

Dynamic Type is an iOS setting that scales fonts across multiple apps. Not all apps support it though, and it doesn’t affect all fonts.

Accessibility

For this method go to Settings > Accessibility, then select Display and Text Size.

Immediately you’ll see a Bold Text toggle, as well as many other readability options. To increase font 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 there’s an app that doesn’t support Dynamic Type, it may be possible to enlarge fonts in other ways. Go to Settings > Control Center, and ensure that Text Size is enabled by tapping a green plus icon if you see one.

Next, launch your desired app. Swipe down from the top-right of the screen to open Control Center, then tap the Text Size icon. 100% is the default size.

At the bottom the screen, select whether the size you’re about to choose should apply to All Apps or only the app you have open. I have LinkedIn open in this case, so I’ll flip the toggle to LinkedIn Only. Once you’ve done that, you’re free to adjust the vertical slider to grow or shrink fonts.

When you’re done, tap anywhere outside controls 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 see the new size in effect.

Repeat the above process to revert back, simply changing font size to 100%.

How to magnify your iPhone screen

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

For this, go to Settings > Accessibility > Zoom. Make sure Zoom Region is set to Window Zoom first, or else your entire screen will be enlarged. With that done you can flip the Zoom toggle, though you should read control instructions first, since these involve double- and triple-tap gestures.

There are additional Zoom options, such as a slider to make magnification smaller or larger, and the ability to show a Zoom Controller onscreen. Use Zoom Filter if you need options like grayscale or inverted colors.

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