Two days ago I posted about my poor experience with Adobe, without even going into detail like how Adobe made it extremely difficult to get any technical support.  Adobe has repeatedly claimed that I’d purchased the product from a reseller (not true) and this was why I was unable to log in to Adobe’s website to get technical support.

To recap: Adobe InDesign and other products in the cut-down CS6 package I purchased recently don’t work at reasonable font sizes using Windows 7.  People in forums without disabilities have been making accusations of Adobe failing to cater to the ‘over 40 market’ because the text sizes and icons are so small.

Below is a screen shot of Adobe’s website showing the specifications for InDesign, which includes compatibility with Windows 7.  There are no caveats stating that it is not possible to use Microsoft’s font enlargement features.  Compatibility with Microsoft’s new disability access features were a major influence in choosing to upgrade to CS6; had I known that this ‘upgrade’ was actually a downgrade in terms of access, I would not have purchased this product.

Adobe has decided that text for menus etc that is less than 3mm high on a 26″ monitor (I used a ruler) is adequate; this is the size of the largest font that Photoshop will allow.  I don’t know if Photoshop is actually working properly or not, so I don’t know if I should set the text to a smaller size.  Here is a screen shot of Photoshop as it is currently set up:

adobe photoshop demo

Compare this with a screen shot of Microsoft Word as I currently have it set up

While Word is by no means a perfect set up for me, I can use Word with its larger font settings.  In order to create the above two documents I took screen shots, pasted them into Word, converted to PDF, opened the PDFs in Photoshop, cropped and saved them as jpgs.  Even that little bit of squinting at the screen with my nose practically touching the monitor while using Photoshop for less than five minutes has given me eyestrain so badly it’s not just my eyes but across the bridge of my nose and a headache as well.  If InDesign is set to font sizes that small, there is no way I can use it to develop new issues of Dark Matter.

Adobe’s solution? Cut my visual real estate in half by using Microsoft’s magnification window.  So, in order to compensate for Adobe’s failure to comply with its own advertising, I’m supposed to cope with only half my monitor dedicated to the program I’m using.  I won’t be able to see layouts at all because the magnification window will only show portions and the other window will either also only show portions of a page or it will be so small I won’t be able to see it.

I use the magnification window on my laptop for basic tasks like watching what I type as I touch-type, but even for reading this is not a satisfactory solution.  Adobe has decided, probably without field testing, that this is the only solution they are willing to allow a disabled person in spite of their advertising and in spite of the verbal assurances I received when I rang Adobe before purchasing the product.

UPDATE:  Adobe InDesign CS3 snapshot.  Notice how Adobe have downgraded font sizes between CS3 and CS6.  CS3 is far from perfect: much of the software, e.g. required text necessary to insert links, is tiny.  This is why many links are broken in Dark Matter issues 1 to 8; the minion is repairing them when he has time, and these issues will be replaced.  Adobe advertising claimed compatibility with Windows 7, which should have resulted in larger font sizes all round instead of smaller.

Adobe InDesign CS3 snapshot

Return to home page