How to deal with tiny text size on the display, especially in email?

Question

I got a Macbook a week ago. I have been using a Windows laptop for about 5 years. Before that I had a couple of Mac desktops.
All in all I am very happy with the Macbook. I haven't had any of the problems which have come up in these forums, unexpected shutdown, bad DVD drives, etc. One thing I love about mine which I had not seen mentioned before I got it is that the Macbook (or mine anyway) is absolutely whisper quiet. I cannot hear the hard drive doing anything. My Dell laptop sounds like a construction site in comparison.
The main issue that is vexing me has to do with the high-res, small-size display. The combination of those two factors means that the text size onscreen is often so small that even with reading glasses I have serious eyestrain.
Back on my Dell this was a lot easier to deal with. In Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, there are very simple settings in the menus to make text sizes better. And this is really important -- those text sizes are remembered after you close and restart the program.
So far as I can tell, that is not true (in general) on the Mac. I find this shocking, since Apple makes such a big deal about the simplicity and usability of the Mac.
Specifically, in Safari I went into preferences and reset the fonts. A little more complicated than in Internet Explorer but it basically works alright.
With Apple Mail, though, it is really troublesome. There is no remember-able setting to increase the text size for viewing (that I can find). And the on-screen size of 12 point text in an incoming email in Apple Mail is just absurdly small. It makes me wonder if Apple is taking bribes from the American Opthalmology Association. This is going to ruin my eyesite pronto.
Of course I can hit Command-+ several times when viewing each email to increase the text size to a readable size. But what a pain.
Is there a way to make those settings rememberable?
Otherwise I like Apple Mail. But I really prefer not to have to hit 6 keystrokes when looking at each email just to get it to a reasonable size.
I looked at the help files for Mozilla Thunderbird. They seem to indicate that program works the same way.
How about Eudora? Any others? Any suggestions much appreciated.
thanks
Paul D.
Macbook   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   1st gen. iPod Mini 4Gb

Answer 1

Hi Jeff, thanks for your careful attention and your comment.
But I have to point out you've missed what I'm talking about.
In OE, in the View menu (right on the menu bar, not under Tools>Options) there is a setting called "Text Size" which allows you to set the text size for viewing and composing (independent of sending). That makes it very easy to make the text easier to read on small screens. It does not "change the appearance of the formatted text so that it no longer corresponds to the intent of the sender". It merely makes the text bigger or smaller, like a magnifying glass.
Via email I had some back and forth today with another poster here discussing this. You might be interested to see the email he sent me in which he included both Helvetica 12 and Helvetica 14. I took a screenshot of the email he sent me (from Apple Mail). When I read this email in Apple Mail with the "Message Font" set to Arial 18 (which is the size I need it set at for readability), Helvetica 14 is displayed at a smaller size than Helvetica 12.
screenshot here: http://www.pbase.com/paulduke/image/64910338/original
That's weird.
Here's a test I did, and this is what really matters to me.
I sent two emails from Windows/Outlook Express. For one I set the default composing font to Arial 12. For the other I set the default composing font to Arial 18.
When I downloaded and read these emails in Apple Mail, sure enough, the Arial 18 font appears much bigger than the font in the Arial 12 mail.
Then I did the reverse. I set the "Message Font" in Apple Mail prefs to Arial 12. Sent an email.
Then I changed the "Message Font" to Arial 18 in prefs and sent another email.
Then I downloaded both these emails into Outlook Express.
On OE, font size is displayed exactly the same in both emails.
So that's good -- I know that Apple Mail, whatever the setting in "Message Font", is sending some sort of "standard" font size. (By the way, I have Apple Mail set to send Rich Text Format mail). My correspondent tells me that Apple Mail doesn't send "true" HTML mail, and Outlook Express does, so perhaps that explains this.
Okay, no big deal. But if I were a graphic designer and I wanted to know for sure that my carefully crafted email styles were getting through, I might be going bonkers because of this.
But I'm not a graphic designer, and for the moment my concerns are assuaged.
And I accept the wisdom of your advice to "go native". I'm trying, I'm trying...
PD
Macbook   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   1st gen. iPod Mini 4Gb