If you find yourself squinting at your iPhone, reaching for your reading glasses, or holding it at arm’s length, these six settings will help. They take a few minutes, and you can undo any of them at any time. The steps are for iOS 26 and iOS 27. To check which you have, open Settings, tap General, then About.

1. Make the text bigger with one slider

This is the quickest win.

  1. Open Settings (the gray gear icon).
  2. Tap Display & Brightness.
  3. Tap Text Size.
  4. Drag the slider to the right. The sample text changes as you go.
  5. Tap Back in the top-left corner when you’re happy.

2. Go bigger still with Larger Text

If the slider’s biggest setting isn’t big enough:

  1. Open Settings and tap Accessibility.
  2. Tap Display & Text Size.
  3. Tap Larger Text.
  4. Turn on Larger Accessibility Sizes (the switch turns green).
  5. Drag the slider at the bottom to the right.

Try this

Go one step bigger than feels necessary, then use your phone for a day. Most people find they prefer it and wish they’d done it sooner.

3. Turn on Bold Text

Bold text is thicker and easier to read, especially outdoors.

  1. Open Settings and tap Display & Brightness.
  2. Turn on Bold Text.

4. Make everything bigger with Display Zoom

Display Zoom makes icons, buttons and text bigger across the whole iPhone.

  1. Open Settings and tap Display & Brightness.
  2. Tap Display Zoom.
  3. Choose Larger Text, then tap Done. If your iPhone asks you to confirm, tap the button to use the larger setting.

5. Make menus less see-through (iOS 26 “Liquid Glass”)

iOS 26 introduced a “Liquid Glass” look where menus and buttons are partly see-through. Many people find this harder to read. On iOS 26.1 or later:

  1. Open Settings and tap Display & Brightness.
  2. Tap Liquid Glass.
  3. Choose Tinted. Buttons and menus become more solid and easier to see.

For even more solid backgrounds:

  1. Open Settings, tap Accessibility, then Display & Text Size.
  2. Turn on Reduce Transparency.
  3. You can also turn on Increase Contrast to make edges and buttons stand out.

6. Zoom in anywhere, and use Magnifier for small print

Zoom lets you magnify any part of the screen.

  1. Open Settings, tap Accessibility, then Zoom.
  2. Turn on Zoom.
  3. To zoom in or out, double-tap the screen with three fingers. To move around while zoomed, drag with three fingers.

Magnifier turns your camera into a magnifying glass for pill bottles, menus and receipts. Swipe down on the Home Screen, type Magnifier and tap the app.

Safety tip

Bigger text also helps you spot scams. Web addresses in scam texts are often long and strange, and they’re much easier to check when you can read them clearly.

If some apps don’t change

A few apps ignore these settings and have their own text size option, often under the app’s settings or a button marked “Aa”. In Safari, tap the page menu in the address bar to zoom a web page.

Your iPhone, Plainly Explained has a whole chapter on making your iPhone easier to see and hear, including hearing and captions settings, all in large print.