Screen Magnifiers

[GWarner]

My vision as continued to worsen to the point that I now have to use a screen maginifier full time because there's no usable hardware only solution.

If you guuys and gals thought EA was bad with their DRM policies, you should check out the companies that make serious screen magnification software!

The two primary products in this field are Magic by Freedom Scientific and ZoomText by AI Squared.

Not only are the screen magnifier programs grossly over priced with prices starting at $250 for Magic and $400 for ZoomText, their DRM is much tighter than EA's.

BTW: Is there a way to search for topics started by a member rather than all of their posts?

[utopiomania]

What about the old magnify that comes with Windows?

[GWarner]

Before health insurance will even consider paying for some of all of it, the program does have to qualify as assistive technology.

Microsoft's and 99% of the other screnn magnifier programs out there don't qualify as assistive technology.

And yes, from a user viewpoint you can tell the difference between the "toys" and the "real" products.

[c4s]

I can't belive that there aren't alternative to such a heavily overpriced product. I just did a quick search, what about:
http://users.telenet.be/littlegems/MySo ... Index.html
...or this discussion?
http://www.aisquared.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=3316

BTW: Is there a way to search for topics started by a member rather than all of their posts?

I just found it out myself:
1) Enter the member you want in "Search for author"
2) Select "Search within: First post of topics only"

[GWarner]

I can't belive that there aren't alternative to such a heavily overpriced product. I just did a quick search, what about:
http://users.telenet.be/littlegems/MySo ... Index.html

I don't believe it, I've been Googling repeatedly in my search and never ran across that, it looks interesting, thanks!

FWIW: I know the reason for the high prices, the market of prospective buyers is small. Only those people with uncorrectable low vision will be interested in them.

...or this discussion?
http://www.aisquared.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=3316

Although interesting, the only thing of any real use was the list of magnifiers someone posted a link to. Unfortunately most of the programs on that list are very old and many are no longer available.

BTW: Is there a way to search for topics started by a member rather than all of their posts?

I just found it out myself:
1) Enter the member you want in "Search for author"
2) Select "Search within: First post of topics only"

Thanks!

[Rook Zimbabwe]

I found this as well... it apports to be PUBLIC DOMAIN and coded for Windows/Linux BUT if it is in C then???
http://magnifier.sourceforge.net/

Also:
http://www.iconico.com/magnifier/

Interesting:
http://www.magnifiers.org/
http://www.magnifiers.org/links/Downloa ... shareware/

Screen Loupe is reportedly now free (well it said that on the BING!)
http://www.gregorybraun.com/Loupe.html

My idea is to create a popup magnifying glass thing up and left of the cursor... maybe I could do it in PB if I figured out that bubbles code from the windows screensaver...

[GWarner]

@Rook
Thanks for the info but I've seen many of those already and most don't do full screen magnification which is what I want.

@c4s
I looked at DesktopZoom it's OK but you can really tell why it's free. Where programs like Magic and ZoomText displays are very smooth, DesktopZoom's display was jerky and erratic which got annoying very quickly. Thanks for the link anyway!

I changed the topic's title, I started it as a jab at how restrictive the DRM on screen magnification software was, but it turned into a topic about screen magnifiers.

[GWarner]

Thanks everyone for your input and suggestions, they are greatly appreciated.

Despite it's price, I have decided to go with ZoomText simply because nothing else I've looked at compares to it except Magic.

But Magic had compatibility or stability issues with programs it doesn't have a script for. While testing it, it worked fine with Microsoft Office programs but as soon as I tried to run UEStudio or PureBasic, it would lock up the system so hard that only a hardware reset or powering off the system could unfreeze it.

ZoomText on the other hand had no problem working with either program.

Interesting factoid: Remember the topic about what percentage of computers had the .NET framework installed? ZoomText is probably written in C# because it uses framework versions, 1.1 and 2. At least it installs both versions on systems that don't already have them.

[Rook Zimbabwe]

Gman... how big is your current Monitor?

[idle]

Zoomtext isn't exactly cheap but it's probably the better option, what it achieves isn't easy to address on windows.
As far as low vision products go it go it's cheap, if you wanted to get some thing like myReader you'd be looking at 4-5k

[GWarner]

Yeah, ZoomText isn't cheap, but of everything I've tried, nothing except Magic came close to how well it works and even Magic couldn't stand up to it.

I also just found out that a single license is good for three computers. Probably similar our license for SoftwarePassport/Armadillo which is also three computers per license as long as you are the primary user or owner of the three computers. The most common is to install it on a home PC, and office or work PC, and a laptop.

@c4s, Your search for topics tip worked great! I was able to find an old topic I had started with no trouble at all. Thanks a bunch!

[idle]

Yes the price tag is mostly due to it being recognized as assistive technology, oh and because it works, most of the time!
As long your insurance dishes out for it, then it's all good!

[c4s]

@GWarner
No problem. I'm glad I could help!

[Mistrel]

My vision isn't very good either. I found that buying a 23" screen helped a lot. Everything gets a lot smaller with my glasses on.

I wonder if something like a 30" would help you work without the use of magnifying tools. That sounds like an unpleasant burden for you.

[Vera]

Hi,

I'd like to add a further tip: OneLoupe
It has customizable windowed (+-frame) /fullscreen (toggle) and 3 magnification modes (normal [shot view], realtime, realtime mouse with transparency (working mode)).

I don't think it can compete with a specialised software but as it's very small and portable it might be a neat tool to have when working on foreign PCs.

btw: as for the screensize ~ why not move to cinematic display

greetings ~ Vera