How-To

How to Enable Large Text on Android Devices

Is the text on your Android smartphone display too small? Here’s how to increase the font size and make it easier for you to read.

Do you have poor eyesight and an Android smartphone? You might want to try increasing the text size before installing a custom poor-vision Launcher app. The difference between the regular font and the larger font is an increase of about 70%.

Increase Android Text Size

Below is a screenshot comparison of the two different sizes. The left is the default font size, and the right is the large size.

android regular size textlarge size font

To enable the large text feature for Android, navigate to the settings menu. Open the app drawer and tap the Settings icon.

system app drawer settingslaunch settings app

Browse to Settings >> Accessibility. In the Accessibility menu tap Large Text.

android accessibilitylarge text

You’ll see a noticeable difference in text size throughout the entire device’s interface. Most of it will increase, but there are some a UI elements that stay the same – such as page titles and the notification bar. Overall though, if you or a friend has poor eyesight then this setting can help a lot!

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Cathy Festa

    October 5, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    I followed the instructions above to increase the size of text on my Droid phone but could only go so far in the steps. Once I got Accessibility, I saw no way of increasing the text size.

    • Austin Krause

      October 6, 2012 at 9:21 am

      Hi Cathy,

      This is interesting, do you know which version of Android you are using? This tutorial was made using the recent Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Which isn’t the latest, because Android 4.1 (Jellybean) is now officially out. Large text may not be available in older versions.

      • Brian Burgess

        October 17, 2012 at 2:04 am

        Interesting. I tried this out on an LG smartphone running Gingerbread, and it says “No Accessibility related apps found” then prompts me to download a screen reader.

        But, on my Google Nexus 7 running Jelly Bean 4.1.2 the options is there.

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