One of the many accessibility features of the iPhone is what Apple calls “Magnifier,” which uses the smartphone’s camera to magnify and identify objects in the world around you. On the day of monitoring the world’s accessibility in May this year, the apple was brought more to the Mac, opening up more places to help the tool can be used, such as the classroom or places of work where they might just have a macbook out.
Magnifier requires Macos 26 Tahoe and can work with a built-in webcam, a connected external camera or an iPhone with Apple’s continuity feature. Provided your MacBook can use Apple’s latest software update, it’s a natural fit for zooming in on a whiteboard at the back of a large lecture hall or getting a closer look at documents on the desk in front of you. You can use the app to both capture each image you want to refer to later, or analyze the text in the live video management. But where should I start? Here’s how to set up and use Magnifier on your Mac.
How to use Magnifier to highlight and display text
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It’s the most powerful feature that uses the machine learning capabilities of the MacBook to identify, display and format the text that your camera captures. This works with the text your camera can see in the room around you, and the things you capture with Macos’ Desk View feature. For example, to view documents on your desktop:
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Click on Camera Section on the Magnifier menu bar and select your own Desk view camera from the drop down menu.
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Click on Student icon (a simple illustration of a document) near the top right of your Magnifier window.
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Click on Sidebar menu icon To access text formatting settings.
Apple gives you options to change the color, font and background of the text the malifier identifies, among other customization options. If you’d like to capture text that you’re zooming in on, you can place the webcam or iPhone camera facing away from you and switch to it with Camera category in Magnifier’s menu bar.
You can also listen to any inspirational text by clicking on Play button in the upper right corner of Magnifier’s reading mode. Clicking Pause button will pause playback, click Jump forward or Skip the back buttons Skip lines of text, and if you want to adjust the playback speed, you can click on 1x button and select a speed from the drop-down menu.
How to use Magnifier to zoom in on yourself
Magnifier can point to text, but it also works as a way to zoom in on your face. (Ian Carlos Campbell of Engadget)
By default, Magnifier uses your MacBook’s built-in camera, which means you’ll see a view of yourself and anything behind you if you don’t have another camera selected. This may not be the case for text recognition, but it’s useful when you’re applying makeup, putting in contacts, or doing anything else where you need a detailed view of your face.
In my tests, using Magnifier worked well with my built-in webcam or iPhone. When I tried to use a third-party webcam from logitech, my live camera feed was noticeably laggy. Your mileage may vary, but if you’re experiencing any issues with your webcam, it’s worth trying your built-in camera to see if that helps. You can switch between cameras and zoom in on your camera management within the Magifier app:
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In the top menu bar, select Camera and click on the camera you’d like to use from the drop-down menu.
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Work Slide At the top center of the windows magnifier is to zoom in on yourself.
You can see a live feed of your zoom in Magnifier’s Main Window. If you click on Camera button In the lower left corner of the app, you can also take a photo to review later. Any photos you have captured will appear in the Signifier’s Beft Badebar menu. Clicking on them allows you to view, zoom in and change their visual appearance (brightness, contrast and other visual settings) with Template category in Magnifier’s menu bar.
