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Lion 10.7.4

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gtr

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May 22, 2012, 9:16:20 PM5/22/12
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The font is smaller in many displays from finder windows to the content
of DevonThink and Unison and damn near everything else. Smaller not
better.

Anyone know how to undo this "feature"?

David Empson

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May 22, 2012, 9:57:10 PM5/22/12
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No such issue here, so the question is what changed on your system.

Are non-text graphical objects the same size as before?

If everything has changed size, then the display may have simply changed
to a different resolution, e.g. reverted to the native resolution of the
display when you had selected a lower resolution before. Which Mac model
do you have? There have been reports of an issue with the graphics
drivers for some older iMac models offering fewer resolutions for the
built-in display in 10.7.4.

If non-text graphics objects are the same size but only the text got
smaller, I'd suspect a corrupted preference file which selects the
standard font for the system. Try using a third party utility to check
the fonts being used. I prefer TinkerTool for this sort of setting. It
has a "Set to default" button. The standard system font is Lucida
Grande, 13 pt, same font with various sizes from 10 to 13 for other
elements; the default Application font is Helvetica 12, and the default
fixed-pitch font is Monaco 10.

--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz

gtr

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May 23, 2012, 1:09:08 AM5/23/12
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On 2012-05-23 01:57:10 +0000, David Empson said:

> gtr <x...@yyy.zzz> wrote:
>
>> The font is smaller in many displays from finder windows to the content
>> of DevonThink and Unison and damn near everything else. Smaller not
>> better.
>>
>> Anyone know how to undo this "feature"?
>
> No such issue here, so the question is what changed on your system.
>
> Are non-text graphical objects the same size as before?
>
> If everything has changed size, then the display may have simply changed
> to a different resolution, e.g. reverted to the native resolution of the
> display when you had selected a lower resolution before. Which Mac model
> do you have? There have been reports of an issue with the graphics
> drivers for some older iMac models offering fewer resolutions for the
> built-in display in 10.7.4.

That's the case with me. I have the option of tiny and gigantic.

David Empson

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May 23, 2012, 4:15:46 AM5/23/12
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[Redirecting discussion to comp.sys.mac.system, as this is a system
issue, not an application issue.]
These links are relevant, with people reporting the same problem, but no
solution yet:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/18350039
https://discussions.apple.com/message/18387967
https://discussions.apple.com/message/18390549
https://discussions.apple.com/message/18390072
https://discussions.apple.com/message/18418151
https://discussions.apple.com/message/18450717

So far I've only seen confirmation of the problem affecting the late
2006 24" iMac.

Send feedback to Apple to complain about it, and clearly describe the
problem and which Mac model you have, particularly its model name and
graphics controller.

You can find those by going to the Apple menu, choosing About This Mac,
and clicking More Info, which runs System Information.

The model name is shown on the first two lines of the Overview tab. It
will probably be something like "iMac 24-inch".

The graphics controller is shown at the bottom of the Displays tab. It
will probably be "NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT" or "NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT",
unless the problem affects other models as well.

Here is the web link for sending feedback to Apple.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

(If you are a registered developer, or are willing to register, which is
free, then filing a bug report via https://bugreport.apple.com would be
better. It has stricter requirements on how to format the report.)

Apple will need to fix this by releasing 10.7.5 or a graphics update for
10.7.4 specific to the affected models, but they need to be made aware
of the scope of the problem.

In the meantime, the only safe way I know to restore all the available
resolutions is to downgrade to 10.7.3.

The only way to do that is if you have kept a copy of the 10.7.3 or
earler version of the full Lion installer. (Internet Restore or
downloading again from the App Store won't work, because that will give
you a 10.7.4 installer.)

If your installer is 10.7.0 through 10.7.2, install the 10.7.3 Combo
update via manual download from http://support.apple.com/downloads.
Don't use Software Update to install 10.7.4, but you can install any
other updates it offers.

It might be possible to fix this on a temporary basis by doing a hack to
restore the graphics controller drivers from an earlier version of Mac
OS X, but I wouldn't recommend trying that unless someone has published
details and confirmed it works. (I can't try this myself as I don't have
access to an affected model.)

There could be compatibility issues between older drivers and the rest
of 10.7.4 which make this hack unreliable or impossible.

--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz

gtr

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May 23, 2012, 9:30:04 AM5/23/12
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Many thanks.

Dave O

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Jun 10, 2012, 9:40:48 PM6/10/12
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> > free, then filing a bug report viahttps://bugreport.apple.comwould be
> > better. It has stricter requirements on how to format the report.)
>
> > Apple will need to fix this by releasing 10.7.5 or a graphics update for
> >10.7.4specific to the affected models, but they need to be made aware
> > of the scope of the problem.
>
> > In the meantime, the only safe way I know to restore all the available
> > resolutions is to downgrade to 10.7.3.
>
> > The only way to do that is if you have kept a copy of the 10.7.3 or
> > earler version of the full Lion installer. (Internet Restore or
> > downloading again from the App Store won't work, because that will give
> > you a10.7.4installer.)
>
> > If your installer is 10.7.0 through 10.7.2, install the 10.7.3 Combo
> > update via manual download fromhttp://support.apple.com/downloads.
> > Don't use Software Update to install10.7.4, but you can install any
> > other updates it offers.
>
> > It might be possible to fix this on a temporary basis by doing a hack to
> > restore the graphics controller drivers from an earlier version of Mac
> >OSX, but I wouldn't recommend trying that unless someone has published
> > details and confirmed it works. (I can't try this myself as I don't have
> > access to an affected model.)
>
> > There could be compatibility issues between older drivers and the rest
> > of10.7.4which make this hack unreliable or impossible.
>
> Many thanks.

Regarding the statement:

It might be possible to fix this on a temporary basis by doing a hack
to
restore the graphics controller drivers from an earlier version of
Mac
OS X, but I wouldn't recommend trying that unless someone has
published
details and confirmed it works. (I can't try this myself as I don't
have
access to an affected model.)

....I would be interested in some further information.
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