Faint Text, Eye Strain, and Headaches

I'm having a very hard time trying to use Windows.

Among many *many* other issues, I have a very hard time reading parts of Windows, such as the File Explorer, Control Panels, etc. as well as some applications. I sometimes get sudden severe headaches when I have to go through the File Explorer, especially if standard or high gamma, full resolution, etc. I have a much easier time reading in Linux Mint Cinnamon running in VirtualBox, so it's not the wrong glasses, or a hardware problem.

Regardless of system, I have a lot of trouble reading thin faint text in light mode, or *any* text in dark mode. I have weak eyesight, I get halos around bright lights, and I have a light sensitivity, so I need to keep brightness down, and I tried to pick screens which would work well at low brightness. I also have a flashing/animation sensitivity.

So far, I've experimented with text scaling, screen scaling, screen resolution, screen calibration, cleartype, Winaero Tweaker to change system fonts, MacType to bolden as many fonts as possible, and Wsl2 to try to get a Linux desktop + Linux accessibility settings in place of the Windows desktop.

Many of these *help*, but they don't help enough, or they don't help everywhere.

I normally have to turn gamma way down, to take faint gray text and make it darker. But I sometimes have to turn gamma way up, to take colored images and make them lighter. And if I pass through the File Explorer while I have gamma way up, I'll get an instant headache. Maybe if I could tweak color profiles on a per-app basis, and easily switch them without going through Windows' settings, that would help.

I normally have to turn screen resolution down. It makes text a little bigger, and a lot bolder. But many apps are designed for a *minimum* screen size of 1920x1080, which is the *maximum* for my screens. And the combination of reduced resolution and increased text size, either through Windows text scaling or through app-specific user css, often breaks their menus, dialogues, etc.

I think picking bolder system fonts, and app fonts, could help, but it's hard to find something which is bold enough, and which supports all the scripts I need it for. I'm currently trying Noto Sans, using Winaero Tweaker. Impact, Bahnschrift, and Roboto don't support all the scripts. Noto Sans doesn't either, but many the system can recognize when to use other fonts in the Noto family. And Winaero Tweaker has *tiny* text which ignores text scaling.

I also contacted Windows help, and Eizo's help; no luck.

So what else can I do about this?

P.S. I got hit with a lot of animation when I started to edit this post. I keep getting hit with animation here.

you seem to have done about all there is to do too the system to improve readability for your eye sight.

have you considered a tinted pair of good quality reading glasses at 1.5x or 2x magnification
that helped someone i know who had sensitive eye sight using a computer screen.

not much in the way of help just me thinking out loud
best of luck, Steve ..

save this as a .reg and run. its grayscale font anti-aliasing:


and use this BetterClearTypeTuner:
https://github.com/bp2008/BetterClearTypeTuner

before you run it, apply this:

Ananiujitha said:

I think picking bolder system fonts, and app fonts, could help, but it's hard to find something which is bold enough, and which supports all the scripts I need it for. I'm currently trying Noto Sans, using Winaero Tweaker. Impact, Bahnschrift, and Roboto don't support all the scripts.

Click to expand...

I have no idea what you refer to when you say scripts. The Roboto font package from Google has Regular, Italic, Medium, Bold, and Bold Italic. It's medium font is what I use as a system font. The bold was entirely too bold for me.

Some 3rd party apps embed their own fonts and sizes into the app. It's up to the developer whether there are options within the app to change its font size. The system font setting does not override the app's embedded fonts.

As @dacrone said, you can try is to change resolution for specific applications in Windows by right-clicking the application's executable file, going to Properties > Compatibility, and using the "Change high DPI settings" option to override the default scaling behavior

Ananiujitha said:

I have weak eyesight, I get halos around bright lights, and I have a light sensitivity, so I need to keep brightness down, and I tried to pick screens which would work well at low brightness. I also have a flashing/animation sensitivity.

Click to expand...

Same here, I use 50% brightness as the rule, I sit 1 feet (30cm) away from the monitor. I have recently started to use Blue Light blocking and it does wonders. I have it ON 24/7 on PC and phone, it takes some getting used to it, since it appears orange, but it is worth it. Windows has Night Mode or you can use f.lux, it protects retina, it improves contrast and it seriously lowers eye strain. You can also use Yellow Tainted Glasses, I wear them outside as well, they help especially at night and in low light environment.

Also consider eye drops, but not for dry eyes, because once eyes gets used to it, you will have to use it forever.

Maybe the best answer is to see an ophthalmologist who can do something about your vision problems.

Seeing halos around bright lights is a symptom of cataracts (or even glaucoma. Such conditions can progress to blindness if untreated. I have cataracts myself, and I expect I'll need surgery before long.

Eksy61 said:

Maybe the best answer is to see an ophthalmologist who can do something about your vision problems.

Click to expand...

People should also train eye muscles, it takes a few mins a day, but you can literally see and feel the difference immediately.


Passive way of training eye muscles is using pinhole glasses for 15 min a day, eg when reading a book.

glasskuter said:

I have no idea what you refer to when you say scripts. The Roboto font package from Google has Regular, Italic, Medium, Bold, and Bold Italic. It's medium font is what I use as a system font. The bold was entirely too bold for me.

Click to expand...

In my case, the Roman, Greek, Wulfilan, and Cyrillic alphabets. Not all fonts support all 4 of those. Some only support the Roman alphabet. I think Roboto supports Roman, Greek, and Cyrillic, but it doesn't support Wulfilan.

Okay,

I already saw several doctors about my light sensitivity, in general, before switching to Windows. I had found fixes for MacOS and Linux. I still haven't found fixes for flashing lights, etc. I picked hardware which should work well at low brightness. I usually run these at 20% brightness or below. I also wear prescription sunglasses. I tried prescription reading glasses + other sunglasses; this didn't help, but maybe readfing sunglasses would.

I might try bettercleartype and/or the regedit tweaks, but not just yet.

As for fonts, I'm looking for (best) a single font family which supports all the scripts I need, or (next best) stylistically matching fonts which, between them, will support all the scripts I need. Starting with the Wulfilan script, since it's the rarest.

Wordmark was easy to search, but didn't show any that were bold-by-default. I figure any of these would end up too thin at system font sizes and renderting styles.

Free Fonts | 150,000+ Font Downloads | FontSpace didn't let me search by character, or by writing system.

MyFonts | Buy and Download Fonts has way, way, way too much animation.

1001 Fonts ❤ Free Fonts Baby! turns up 3 specialist fonts. But they're all too faint on Windows.

Browse Fonts - Google Fonts has way too much animation. I can't search by character. I can search by writing system, which turns up Cardo and Noto Sans Gothic. Both're too faint on Windows, and Cardo only seems to include italics.

Adobe Fonts has way too much animation. I tried to search by character and it gave false results, which lacked the needed letters. I tried to search by writing system and it gave false results, which were stylized Roman letters.

Powershell is another trouble spot, because it has color-coded text, (white on white, gray on white, etc.), and because it goes haywire when I use the mouse. Wsl2 within powershell works better.

i use the Ubuntu font family. they have been designed for LED screens and are based on google fonts.

best of luck Steve ..

Thanks. I think I need something bolder. So far, Roboto Slab seems to be much better there, even though it doesn't have all the coverage I'd like.

I think contrast themes could help, but so far, they aren't enough either.

When debugging, I often have to try non-contrast themes, or try the default "Desert" high-contrast theme. And then it's a pain to re-enable my working theme. Contrast Theme Settings are in a different part of the Windows Settings from (Other) Themes and Related Settings, and from Mouse Pointer and Touch, and I have to switch *both* Contrast Theme Settings *and* Mouse Pointer and Touch, in the right order, each time.

Is there a way to create and save, or download and save, a custom theme, including the mouse cursor?

Is there an easier way to switch themes, including the mouse cursor?

Is there a way to get consistent bold dark text, instead of faint gray text, in the File Explorer?

Do you have cataracts ?
If so,then surgery is recommended Been there done that.
After the innumerable changes to win11,suggest you clean it up.
In Powershell [admin],type in ---dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth ---and run it.
When completed,type in ---sfc /scannow --- and run it until a clean report is given.
What problems are you now experiencing >

Not that I know of. I have an astigmatism, which can cause similar symptoms. I have seen several doctors, and I had an eye exam just last year.

A lot of people report trouble with Windows 11, and snowie2000 created MacType 9 years ago for Windows 8.

I have a much easier time reading text in Linux Mint + Cinnamon in Virtualbox. So I don't think it's a hardware issue. I also tried running Ubuntu + Cimmanon in wsl2, but couldn't get it to work.

I wouldn't be surprised if Windows had been aggressively optimized for increasingly-ultra-high resolution displays, at extremely high brightness, and isn't entirely compatible with lower-resolution displays, at lower brightness.

Ananiujitha said:

Is there a way to create and save, or download and save, a custom theme, including the mouse cursor?

Click to expand...

You can create your own theme or let AI create it for you. Start by asking co-pilot or any other AI app something like
"I need help creating a high contrast Windows theme suitable for the vision impaired. It must have a bold system font and custom mouse pointer."(add any other requirement you need here)
You can continue to add to the same copilot conversation. Once you get a theme like you want, your can save it as well as export it to use elsewhere

Ananiujitha said:

Is there an easier way to switch themes, including the mouse cursor?

Click to expand...

Not that I'm aware off but
There are 3rd party tools that can switch from light to dark mode using keyboard combinations. There's also this coming soon.

Of course you are welcome to ask your questions here , but IMO you would be better served asking your questions to AI as you have a unique situation that most of us do not have to deal with. With copilot use Smart (GPT-5) when asking your questions. Another AI that is quite good is ChatGPT but you have a limitation on questions you can ask whereas copilot is unlimited.

Okay, I ran the powershell scripts, restarted, and created a new system restore point for good measure.

Here are the problems:

1. I have trouble reading the File Explorer, especially the navigation section, and the Home, Gallery, and Personal folders. It sometimes appears bolder, sometimes fainter. I can quickly get headaches from viewing these folders when it's fainter.

2. I have trouble reading the older Windows Control Panels.

3. I have trouble reading LibreOffice, especially the navigation section, and the options.

4. I have trouble reading some older Windows applications such as k2pdfopt, nanDeck, etc.

5. I have even more trouble reading any websites, apps, etc. that use dark mode. And reducing gamma to improve light mode worsens dark mode, or vice-versa.

6. Many apps have menus, dialogues, etc. which won't fit on the screen at my current reduced resolution.

Have you thought of using magnifier? You can test it by returning all other settings to default making a note of them to return to if magnifier isn't for you. Go to settings, accessibility, magnifier. Change the zoom increments to 10%. Turning on is win key + plus sign. Zoom in or out is press and hold CTRL +ALT and use mouse scroll wheel. Moving the mouse cursor to an edge will scroll the page in that direction (let or right) and scroll wheel for up or down.