Change the iTunes 12 Font Size to be Larger or Smaller

iTunes 12 brought about some fairly significant user interface changes to the media player app, one of which is the size of the font shown in playlist and music views. The new default iTunes font is smaller with tighter padding between list items, and accordingly it can be difficult to read for some users. But unlike most places in OS X, iTunes does offer an ability to change the size of onscreen fonts, which can help make that playlist and music text more readable.

You’ll also find another benefit to increasing the text size used in iTunes is larger padding between the playlist items, further increasing the readability of text within iTunes 12. Making this adjustment combined with showing the sidebar in iTunes 12 can make the media player resemble the prior user experience a bit more if you’re having a hard time adapting to the changes of the newest release.

1. From the iTunes app, go to the iTunes menu and choose ‘Preferences’
2. Select the “General” tab
3. Next to “List Size” choose “Large” (or Medium or Small) to adjust the font size of playlist text (yes you adjust ‘List Size’ to change the actual font size)



4. Click “OK” to set the change and return to the Playlist or My Music list views to see the difference

This is what the Larger font size looks like in the iTunes Playlist view, the text size itself is larger and the padding between list items is more significant:

For many users without a Retina display, the Medium font size or Larger font size will likely look the best, but there is a “Small” option. The image below shows what that small font size looks like in iTunes 12 playlist view, which is going to be desirable for some users as well, particularly since it allows for large amounts of playlist data to be seen immediately on screen without scrolling further into the iTunes library:

Note the sidebar font size is not controlled through this setting, by instead through the broader OS X sidebar size setting found in the “General” System Preferences.

For users in OS X Yosemite who make this change but think the iTunes font also looks blurry or difficult to distinguish, changing the font smoothing setting and using the Increase Contrast option can help to improve the text appearance, particularly for Mac users without a Retina display.

Of course or those who really dislike the changes brought about in iTunes 12, downgrading from iTunes 12 to 11 is an option, but over time iOS devices may run into issues with newer iOS versions on older iTunes builds, making that an impractical solution for many.