Large Type?

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
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#1

I recently came across an application called “Large Type” which displays selected text using the same feature as the “display Large Type” option in the Address Book. However, this program didn’t really meet my needs, and I was wondering if it might be possible to write a short applescript which would do the following:

Take the selected text and display it in a scrolling text window, preserving styling but significantly increasing the font size?

The problem with the Large Type feature is that large text blocks actually become smaller, because there is no scrolling feature.

The built in options for OS X are limited as well: command-+ in many applications will only increase a few sizes, but not further. This is usually fine for English language text, but not for Chinese which I have to deal with regularly. The Zoom option makes text look pixilated.

The Large Type program also only works in Cocoa applications, I’d like something that worked anywhere!

Browser: Firefox 2.0
Operating System: Mac OS X (10.4)

#2

hi Luhmann,

maybe you can simply use the pastebord (copy&paste) to get the selected text?
Here a first (ugly and not scrooling) attempt:

tell application "System Events"
	tell (application process 1 whose frontmost is true)
		keystroke "c" using command down
	end tell
end tell

tell application "TextEdit"
	activate
	set display to make new document
	
end tell

tell application "System Events"
	tell process "TextEdit"
		keystroke "v" using command down
		keystroke "a" using command down
		repeat 5 times
			keystroke "+" using command down
		end repeat
	end tell
end tell

D.

#3

Hello

Here I doesn’t respond about AppleScript.
In every app you have a menu item like the
Format > Fonts > Display Fonts

available in TextEdit.
Select it then you will be able to select a font size as large as 288.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE dimanche 15 octobre 2006 09:30:1)

#4

That isn’t true of apps where you are not editing text - like reading mail in Mail.app. (I’m not a great applescripter, but I’m not an idiot either.)

#5

Hello

I don’t know if you are but, in Mail.app, you may
select the contents of a received mail,
copy it to the clipboard,
paste in a new message
then select Format > Fonts > Display Fonts

and select a size up to 288.

I’m sure of that because as always, I test before responding !

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE dimanche 15 octobre 2006 17:20:38)

#6

Yes. That is what I’ve been doing for the past year. The point of this post is to NOT have to do all that every time I want to read a message.

Thanks for your help.

#7

Hello

Have you already tried to enter Mail’s preferences and set Font to display messages to 64 ?

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 16 octobre 2006 10:15:2)

#8

The fact is that I work in two languages and it is only one of those languages that is too small. I don’t want all my messages to be huge - just the Chinese ones. On OS 9 I had an application which would set different font sizes according to encoding, but I lost that ability in OS X.

Thanks for the alternatives, but I thought a long time about what I needed before writing this post.

#9

Hello

--[SCRIPT MailSize64]
tell application "Mail" to set message font size to 64
--[/SCRIPT]

--[SCRIPT MailSize12]
tell application "Mail" to set message font size to 12
--[/SCRIPT]

Save them as Scripts in “:Users::Library:Scripts:Mail Scripts:”
You will be able to trigger them from the Scripts menu.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 16 octobre 2006 12:06:17)

#10

Thanks, but this gives me an error message. Mail does not seem to understand the command. Does this work on your system? I’m using 10.4.8.

#11

Hello

As I already wrote here,

I’m sure of that because as always, I test before responding !

To be precise, I tested with a message already open in Mail. (Mac OS 10.4.8 too )

Here is a new version which acts as a switcher.

--[SCRIPT MailSize_12_64]
tell application "Mail"
	if message font size is 64 then
		set message font size to 12
	else
		set message font size to 64
	end if
end tell
--[/SCRIPT]

We may use an alternate folder:

“:Users::Library:Scripts:Applications:Mail:”

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 16 octobre 2006 13:11:7)

#12
#13

Hello

Works flawlessly on my machine !!!

Here is the log report

tell application “Mail”
get message font size
12.0
set message font size to 64
end tell

I even checked that it works when the script is saved as an Application.

I also checked that it works when there is no open message, only a mailbox’s contents displaid.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 16 octobre 2006 17:29:25)