Evernote Default font size is too small

[danzip 17]

Please bring back the ability to change the default font size. The new 16pt font  size  is  too small for me to read.

This is fundamental. People use Evernote to read and review their notes. If they find this hard to do...why would they continue to use the program? 

If this feature bothers you as well, please send feedback to Evernote to change this. There are a lot of features I dont like about the new Evernote but I can live with them. This one I can't live with!

 

ps.i'm aware I can just magnify the window and the font size would increase. But this workaround is not usable becasue my notes then become too long horizontally. And then I have to scroll right to see the hidden part of the note. Very tedious.

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi.  What device,  OS and Evernote version are you using?

[silentquest 68]

I agree with this. For me the issue is on IOS. iPhone 12.

[PinkElephant 8,077]

The size is similar to other apps. If it is too small for you, you can modify it in iOS settings, display & brightness, text size. This will change the text size in all apps that are set to react on this setting. EN does adapt menus and titles, you just need to close and reopen the app.

[Joungsoung 3]

On 1/21/2021 at 1:54 PM, danzip said:

Please bring back the ability to change the default font size. The new 16pt font  size  is  too small for me to read.

This is fundamental. People use Evernote to read and review their notes. If they find this hard to do...why would they continue to use the program? 

If this feature bothers you as well, please send feedback to Evernote to change this. There are a lot of features I dont like about the new Evernote but I can live with them. This one I can't live with!

 

ps.i'm aware I can just magnify the window and the font size would increase. But this workaround is not usable becasue my notes then become too long horizontally. And then I have to scroll right to see the hidden part of the note. Very tedious.

That's exactly what I want. They just deleted "Scale Note Body Size" on my Android app with the new update. I don't understand why Evernote deleted the essence, the most fundamental feature as a memo app. Some people keep recommending device resolution change or something but that's not I want. I just need "Scale Note Body Size", which previous Evernote used to have, regardless of android or ios whatsoever. I don't understand what developers are working for. Are they trying to lose competitiveness on purpose?? 

[Evernotist 2]

"Scale note body size" is urgently needed on iOS/iPadOS, too, because it doesn't support Apple's dynamic text feature. Enlarging text size in iOS settings will only result in larger fonts in menus, not in note bodies. Please support dynamic text or re-introduce the slider "Scale note body size" (as can be found in apps like Devonthink To Go). Otherwise I'll have to think of migrating to Devonthink or even Apple Notes (which can't compete with Evernote when it comes to features).

[davidtderrick 54]

I totally agree. PinkElephant is wrong on this. But no action from Evernote!

[gazumped 11,652]

1 hour ago, davidtderrick said:

But no action from Evernote!

What sort of action are you expecting?  Evernote probably have this noted as a possible future feature,  but they've been a little busy for the past several months catching up on Legacy features and resolving bugs.  Since they also sneakily added Tasks and promise more development there,  I'd say they have their dance card full for at least a year still on R&D & fixing things.  After that they'll -maybe- look more closely at other requests.

[davidtderrick 54]

A fix? But yes, they have had others to attend to in what has possibly been the most premature major release of any mass-use software in history. But I'm an optimist in the long run and will probably stick with Evernote!

[Evernotist 2]

Still sticking with Evernote, too, because neither Devonthink nor Apple Notes can be synced with the Windows machines I have to use (Apple Notes on icloud.com is not really scalable and offers a very restrictive set of features). Sadly, Joplin on iOS has pretty much the same text size issue: Changing the size at system level will only affect text in headers and menus, not in note bodies (already addressed by Joplin users in their forum, but feature requests like this probably take even LONGER to materialize than in the Evernote world).

Interestingly, the 'new' Evernote on a Samsung S20 (which I don't own) seems to react to system-level changes in font size, but I couldn't test that properly. So maybe there's hope for Android users like Joungsoung...

[Evernotist 2]

OneNote on mobile devices lacks a "scale note body size" feature as well, but Calibri 14p looks quite OK on all device types (browser, mobile and desktop apps). However, the mobile web clipper (i.e. sharing from Safari to OneNote) produces another problem with legibility: Entire websites are clipped as long, thin JPEGS, which look totally distorted when maximized. But that's yet another issue reported on the OneNote user forums years ago with absolutely no reaction from Microsoft. I don't expect a "mobile first" strategy from that company, but I actually do from Evernote...

[factus66 0]

Yes, they are probably a little busy with this 'minor' request. I think the default font size (16 pt) is too big. It's interesting most think it's too small. Not sure why EN would remove a customizable aspect for it's users. Let us customize to the teeth if we want, but don't remove options.

[davidtderrick 54]

You need to be able to scale in the case of Evernote for IOS and probably for the Mac too. 16 point is meaningless in the relative world of digital displays, but it's normally considered a large-ish font size. Here it's tiny! This needs fixing.

[Evernotist 2]

16p still baffling me: What would be too big on desktop and print is definitely too small on smartphone and tablet. Being new in the world of Apple (the old Evernote on Samsung S8/Android 9 was perfect in terms of legibility), I think Evernote’s definition of 16p must be something like the iPhone’s/iPad’s standard font size (which I changed to bigger size on iOS level, but with no effect to Evernote).

Joplin as an Evernote alternative shows the same behaviour and (as a markdown editor/viewer) has pretty much the same small font size, which seems to suggest to me that this is kind of a standard fallback font size for iOS. Interestingly, toggling from view to edit mode solves the problem: Text size while editing reacts to iOS settings (as should all fonts in ALL apps IMHO…).

I agree that app-by-app customization would be the best solution, and I think customization in this particular case (concerning legibility and accessibility) is no luxury, but a crucial issue in terms of user experience – making me search for alternatives, although I’ve been a happy Evernote user for years…

[PinkElephant 8,077]

Changing the text size in iOS has an effect for EN, but only for menus, not for content. 

No easy fix for this. Apple defines the displays as retina, which means they are so sharp that the eye won’t see the pixels. So each square  mm has the same number of pixels - but because of varying screen sizes, the total pixels vary from device to device. That is different to the philosophy to define HD or 4K as a number of pixels, independent from whether the display has 21“ or 40“.

IMHO you should share your issue with EN through a support ticket.

[davidtderrick 54]

If Evernote isn't already aware of these Forum discussions, there's no hope. And I'm not asking for support. But thanks

[PinkElephant 8,077]

The forum is mainly user to user.

The support ticket plus the feedback function build into the new clients are the defined ways to bring something to the attention of EN.

[davidtderrick 54]

I repeat: if we have to do all the work, and they don't study these forums, they deserve to fail.

[PinkElephant 8,077]

If you wrote the rules, you could change them. If I wrote the rules, I could change them. But neither you nor me did write the rules.

The way to get information to EN is through a support ticket, or by the feedback function.

[CalS 5,280]

Is there a table anywhere that represents font size equivalents across platforms/screens? 

I use 10 on my PC which shows depending upon note as 16 or 13 on my phone, which I can't quite follow.  The 13 is in a table if that makes any difference.  And 13 is NOT an option for font size when using the fonts option on the phone.  If I change the 16 font on my phone to 14 and back to 16, so the same, the font on my PC changes to 12 from 10.  Something to do with V6.25.1 and V10 perhaps, but still a cluster of sorts.  And no way to beat it into submission that I can see.   Nothing more frustrating than having something nicely formatted in one place and not so much in another.

EDIT.  I changed the font to 14 to 16 in V10 browser and the font changed from 10 to 11 on my V6.25.1 PC.  Down on one up on the other?  Changed it back to 16 in the browser and it stayed 11 on the desktop.  Changed desktop back to 10, my default, and browser became 13.  DId a remove format on desktop and font stayed 10 and browser went back to 16 where it started.  Not sure what any of this means other than maybe default equals default and any changes will generate spurious until you figure it out results.  Done with this.  

[PinkElephant 8,077]

On modern web sites you use responsive layouts. When the content is delivered, it is matched with the abilities of the device, and shown correspondingly.

Say you have a mobile with a „grainy“ screen, and another with much better resolution. Then the same content will show in a „large“ font size on the grainy and pretty small on the razor sharp display. The logic behind it is that you are still able to read it, because it is sharp.

This is not the problem here.

IMHO the problem is how EN treats system settings. You can set the system text size in steps to „larger“, for example when you have a reading deficiency. EN only reacts partly to this setting, not in the text body of notes.

If EN would take the global setting and use it, the problem would probably be solved. Who has a problem with small text usually sets his system text to large, and this would do the expected. Font size in itself is not important in this respect.

[CalS 5,280]

2 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Font size in itself is not important in this respect.

As is obvious by the one note journey detailed above.  🤣

I guess If I could say I wanted 10 on desktop and 14 on IOS and 14 on web as defaults and things displayed accordingly I would be a happy camper.  Then it's my own fault when things go sideways.  But that would be too simple for the user.  Might or might not be complicated for the programmer.  God knows easier to understand.

[PinkElephant 8,077]

This is why Apple invented this retina resolution and put it on all devices. It means the screen pixel per inch are always the same, be it an iPhone, an iPad or a Mac. Well, not exactly, because you view an iPhone from closer.

They avoid a lot of problems that arise when you put say „FullHD“ (which is a given pixel count) on devices with different screen sizes. FullHD on a 13“ looks very different from a FullHD on a 32“ screen.

[Evernotist 2]

In an ideal world there would be sliders for scaling display sizes of fonts in EVERY application as we know them from Adobe and Microsoft products (leaving font point sizes intact). Just as we had on the old Evernote app for Android as Joungsoung has pointed out. That would be even better than iOS settings where scaling text can mean a jump from too small to too big. That’s what I experience on the Mail app, even with accessibility services turned on (offering me more steps for scaling – but I don’t want steps, I want 'infinite' percentage numbers in a slider…).

This may be a "minor issue" for Evernote developers as factus66 has suggested, but it’s enough to tempt me into moving all my stuff over to other apps: Outlook instead of Apple Mail (on the iPhone), Joplin instead of EN (on all devices). If only moving notes was as easy as changing mail clients… Joplin’s ENEX-importer does a pretty good job, though. Unfortunately, there’s no feasible way back to EN, which makes it a rather hard decision. Encryption of all notes is a fine feature, but it makes synchronisation over-complicated the way Joplin handles it.

[CalS 5,280]

14 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

This is why Apple invented this retina resolution and put it on all devices. It means the screen pixel per inch are always the same, be it an iPhone, an iPad or a Mac. Well, not exactly, because you view an iPhone from closer.

They avoid a lot of problems that arise when you put say „FullHD“ (which is a given pixel count) on devices with different screen sizes. FullHD on a 13“ looks very different from a FullHD on a 32“ screen.

Not all devices are the same age unfortunately.  Hence let me set the default by platform and let all that magic scaling in.  In my fantasy world anyway.  It is EN to EN after all for text notes.

[CalS 5,280]

1 hour ago, CalS said:

EDIT.  I changed the font to 14 to 16 in V10 browser and the font changed from 10 to 11 on my V6.25.1 PC.  Down on one up on the other?  Changed it back to 16 in the browser and it stayed 11 on the desktop.  Changed desktop back to 10, my default, and browser became 13.  DId a remove format on desktop and font stayed 10 and browser went back to 16 where it started.  Not sure what any of this means other than maybe default equals default and any changes will generate spurious until you figure it out results.  Done with this.  

Follow up.  The exercise above duplicated the note in question.  I was very careful synching on the desktop and adding a bit of text to be sure the note made it to/fro the web.  No mention of a conflict, just a duplicated note with its own create date.  Yuck.

[PinkElephant 8,077]

@Evernotist You point out an important issue. EN has ENEX and HTML export. 

Many other note apps don’t offer a sound way to export the content. This creates a lock in for the data.

Who thinks about switching should check that not only there is an importer from EN (which many apps offer because EN has set the standard), but an exporter as well.

[danmills7 38]

All, one of the biggest challenges that Evernote faces with developing features, is one they created for themselves. For the desktop application, their challenge is because they decide on Electron for it platform. Electron is nothing more than a "wrapper" that shows web content. This makes native integration with the OS you are running Evernote on, a less than optimal solution. There are many Electron based apps out there (Slack, MS Teams, Evernote), and I have NEVER used one that was nearly as good an experience as one that was built as a natively supported app for the given OS.

[gazumped 11,652]

1 hour ago, danmills7 said:

is one they created for themselves.

I'm not a fan of v10 (I've only used the web version so far) but in fairness,  Evernote came under a ton of pressure from users who wanted their notes "to look the same on every platform - mobile or desktop". 

They also had the slight problem that every Evernote version had about several different (and expensive) teams working different OS versions of the same thing.. on iterations for Windows/ Mac/ Android/ iOS/ web.  Which also meant that Windows had 'import folders' where Mac did not;  and Mac notes showed inline views of some documents where Windows did not...  and all OS users wanted the same perks that their opposite numbers got.

So Evernote decided to listen to their customers,  become more efficient - and save themselves considerable extra costs - by adopting Electron. So  everyone gets exactly the same. 

Evernote users have accept some blame themselves for this situation...

[PinkElephant 8,077]

One simply can’t build native apps that offer the same over time as the frameworks do. The reason is that the OS updates run in different cycles, and include different features.

Who saw what was going on saw that EN was practically killing itself over just keeping pace with 4 major OS updates every year, plus permanent browser updates. They were not able to develop new features, they were just struggling to keep the platform alive.

And in this business, if you don’t innovate, you perish. This to all nostalgics out there who talk about the „good old times“.

Personally I am happy to have legacy around for a while. Import folders now reduced my „legacy list“ by another position. There are not many left until I can send legacy to rest.

[Jon/t 1,276]

6 hours ago, danmills7 said:

Electron is nothing more than a "wrapper" that shows web content. This makes native integration with the OS you are running Evernote on, a less than optimal solution.

Its much more than a wrapper that shows web content... honest, it really is. It can be fast or slow, depends how you build it. 

On another point... Without being pedantic... well maybe a little lol.... the the font size of 16 is in pixels not points and user experience best practice is to use 16px for default body copy.

For accessibility is would also be good to have an easy way for the user to increase/decrease this.

[davidtderrick 54]

On a current iPad Pro 12.9 inch 16 is too small for the body of a note. I don't have any eyesight challenges. For those that do, it definitely needs to be scalable.

[PinkElephant 8,077]

EN just needs to pick up the system settings on the mobile device. Who needs it larger will usually set the system size up.

Beside this I think it is good practice and a sign of true citizenship to support accessibility features to the max.

No, personally I have no issues - but anybody can come in the situation, and should be able to still use the tools that make up a large part of modern life.

[danrhiggins 6]

On 1/23/2021 at 3:13 AM, PinkElephant said:

The size is similar to other apps. If it is too small for you, you can modify it in iOS settings, display & brightness, text size. This will change the text size in all apps that are set to react on this setting. EN does, you just need to close and reopen the app.

I’m sorry but this is simply not true.  I have used OneNote extensively for taking notes and really wanted to migrate to Evernote.  But the size 16 Font is too small and I have no clean way to make it smaller.  I do on OneNote.  I’m not asking Evernote to offer a myriad of different fonts as they seem to be adverse to doing so.  Just asking them to let us choose the default font size so as to suit our personal needs.

[davidtderrick 54]

Agree,  but don't you mean viewing size as opposed to font size? This has to apply to existing notes, not only new ones.

[Adán Aguirre 0]

On 1/20/2021 at 9:54 PM, danzip said:

Please bring back the ability to change the default font size. The new 16pt font  size  is  too small for me to read.

This is fundamental. People use Evernote to read and review their notes. If they find this hard to do...why would they continue to use the program? 

If this feature bothers you as well, please send feedback to Evernote to change this. There are a lot of features I dont like about the new Evernote but I can live with them. This one I can't live with!

 

ps.i'm aware I can just magnify the window and the font size would increase. But this workaround is not usable becasue my notes then become too long horizontally. And then I have to scroll right to see the hidden part of the note. Very tedious.

Completely in accord. Please give us a solution to increase the font on iOS 

[Adán Aguirre 0]

On 6/27/2021 at 7:56 PM, davidtderrick said:

Agree,  but don't you mean viewing size as opposed to font size? This has to apply to existing notes, not only new ones.

Agreed 

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi.  There's a separate general Feature Request forum here,  where you can set up a votable suggestion that font sizes be made available as an option.  I suspect there's already at least one already set up with which you could simply join in.

[PinkElephant 8,077]

There is a number of posts in the features area already about the topic.

There is a description of possible workarounds as well.

Since there have passed 2 years already without a change, I would be careful with the argument „nobody can live without it“. Personally I think (beside cases where accessibility issues play a role) that often the selected screen resolution on the monitor is suboptimal. As long as this is pending, I would play with the settings to improve the legibility of the notes.

 

[Angelso 2]

Still no solution? This is so basic... Evernote is so terrible.... My eyes are in pain

[PinkElephant 8,077]

Options: Change your screen resolution, or Zoom in on the app. It will remember the last Zoom setting when opened the next time.

Actually the Font is 16pt - usually more than enough, the standard of MS Word for example is 10 or 12pt.

[Angelso 2]

Changing screen resolution messes with the font everywhere. Zooming in is jokes. I have to scroll right and left to read my notes. We are in 2023,  not 2003.

 

More than enough NOT FOR MY EYES. For God's sake.. I pay to use the app and they can't even implement "changing font size". _RIDICULOUS _

[PinkElephant 8,077]

You can name it as you wish.

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