I just had to get out a magnifying glass to read the instructions on a jar of vindaloo paste. I got out a measuring tape and discovered the font is 1mm high. One millimeter! What the hell is that all about?
Then I remembered that the instructions on my kids’ pain medication is also incredibly small, so I checked. The instructions are in a font that is probably about 0.8mm high. This is pain medication for children and I can barely read it with my glasses on, and through a magnifying glass. Something is seriously wrong with the folks who manufacture stuff with impossibly small instructions like this.
Anyone else over 40 who is starting to feel like a second-class citizen?
My trick for these types of packages is to bust out the digital camera and use the macro lens feature. Instantly legible instructions! Joy! (I have doubts that specs would help with this.)
What I don’t understand is why this sort of thing is typical for dosage instructions.
My eyes are definitely going, it’s true. In addition to all the other fine print you mention, I’m really starting to hate web browers/web pages that won’t accommodate enlarged text. I have an appointment next week, and I’m hoping my new prescription (for lenses - the rest of me is beyond the reach of pharmaceuticals) will help.
Ignorance is bliss, baby. I will never again annoy my fellow shoppers by clogging up the aisle while I read the stupid food labels. Better yet, I no longer know or care that my Trader Joes Orange Chicken nuggets probably contain 145 mgs per serving of evil fat. Perk of old age, I say.
Hey, is that 1 tab every 4 hours or 4 tabs every hour? ::shrugs::
Most of the calibrators and controls I use at work come in teeny glass vials that only hold a milliliter or three of liquid with teeny little labels containing all the information I really need to know but can’t see very well. Fortunately I’m nearsighted and can still read them with my glasses off if need be. Though I look kind of stupid holding them about an inch from my face.
My twenty-something coworkers find it somewhat amusing.
Preach it! I started to notice that type was getting smaller within a month of my 40th birthday. I’ve had my eyes checked since then and my prescription hasn’t changed at all, which I find weird. Then I came across the phrase ‘middle-aged eyes,’ which I don’t find soothing in the least.
I’m seriously nearsighted, so I can theoretically look at things close up without correction for greater visibility, but since I usually wear contacts, it becomes a bit problematic.
I’m okay with the aging process, I really am, it’s just that I thought it would start a bit later, when I felt a bit, you know … older.
Yeah, sorry, 40ish is the magic number for presbyopia. I work in ophthalmology and the docs I work with always recommend just getting those storebought reading glasses if you can get by with those. If you wear glasses for regular use, then it’s probably bifocal time. (I’ve been wearing them since my 20s to give my eyes a break off my high prescription, when I do close reading work, so at least I’m used to it.)
The last two days my cold has my eyes irritated and closed to slits. I can’t read the instructions on anything.
Some things have gone to ridiculously small print. Look at the video game hardware requirements. My sight sucks when reading normal print on packaging. The new smaller print is impossible. I look up the specs for anything I want to purchase on the company site now.
I’m not yet 50 and I carry a small mag glass with a light with me. It’s perfect for dimly lit restaurants with menus in small type. (But, then again I only go to these restaurants between 4:30 - 6:00 PM, wearing my khaki sans-a-belt slacks and putty colored comfort shoes. :D:D:D)
I’ve always felt that diminishing vision as you age is gods way of balancing out the diminishing beauty of your mate!
Since my cataracts forced me to get my natural lenses replaced with bifocal plastic ones, I have trouble reading in dim light. The last two restaurants I went to not only had dim light, but the menu was done in light brown letters on a beige background. I’m gonna take a flashlight with me next time!
