Those who see us poorly (presbyopic and partially sighted) or even for those who see us well but want to make it easier to read sheets or newspaper articles written too small, can use the smartphone as if it were a magnifying glass in all respects, able to enlarge and focus the text so as to make it easy to read . This function can be obtained on Android through the installation of some applications that transform each smartphone into a magnifying glass or, on iPhone, using one of the hidden functions of iOS 10 without installing any app.
The advantage of using the digital camera as a magnifying glass and reading also lies in the possibility of using the flash as a torch to illuminate a text in the case of low light.
To use the new magnifying glass of the iPhone with iOS 10 you have to activate it by going to Settings> General> Accessibility and activate the " Magnifying glass " option.
You can activate the automatic brightness from here if you want the iPhone to automatically set the brightness and contrast when you open the lens (the automatic setting can still be changed during use).
Once the lens has been activated, to use it just make a triple touch on the Home button.
If the magnifying glass is the only accessibility option activated, it will open immediately, otherwise you will see a menu to open it.
The Magnifying Glass opens at the lowest zoom level.
At the bottom left, you can touch the slider to zoom in and out of the camera.
If you are in a dark or low light environment, you can turn on the flashlight to illuminate the framed text.
If you have trouble focusing, touch the zoom level and then press the lock button to lock the focus and stabilize it.
One of the best features of the magnifying glass of the iPhone is definitely the still image, i.e. the ability to photograph the framed image so that you can see it in full screen and read even without holding the iPhone in the frame.
In this mode, just touch the screen to return to the magnifying glass.
The photo taken is not saved in the iPhone camera roll.
If you want to save the framed image, or take a normal photo or you can press the Home and Power buttons together to take a screenshot and photograph the screen.
Finally, the magnifying glass of the iPhone also has (button on the right) a series of color filters to improve the reading of a text, invert colors and change brightness and contrast.
On Android, however, there is no integrated magnifying glass although some phones may even have added it.
Then check in Accessibility Settings if you find the magnifying glass, otherwise, just install an external app.
The quality of a magnifying glass on Android depends a lot on the smartphone and the quality of its camera.
Among the best apps to have a magnifying glass on Android we can report:
- Magnifying glass, free of charge, with the possibility of enlarging the frame, zooming, changing the brightness, activating the flash and also with a still image function to take a photo of the enlarged part.
- Magnifying Glass Flashlight with 8x zoom, possibility to use the flash to illuminate and freeze frame.
- Magnifier & Microscope is a camera, a LED flashlight and also a microscope with powerful magnification and a traditional magnifying glass with image freezing capacity.
There are also color filters and high contrast mode.
- HD magnifying glass supports zooming up to 8x and capturing detail in photos.
READ ALSO: Audiometric test to measure hearing and ears (PC, Android and iPhone)
