I’ve been quiet and suffering on this for years but it’s time to speak up. For several versions of cubase which controls keep getting smaller and smaller, could the scrollbars, zoom controls and fonts be any less microscopic? Have you every thought about accessibility and usability? Do people with bad eyesight and disability not matter at all in times where men can be women and equality is the top topic of the world? Have any of you people at Steinberg ever actually USED your software? How do you all work with that thing?
Yes I and many people are really pissed that those issues are not adressed. It’s not even possible for the edit window to keep a fixed vertical or horizontal zoom setting, so ever time I edit a part I can use a lens to find the controls to zoom the content to a size where I can edit it befor I can edit it, which is something you obviously do thousands of times during a production. I’m beyond the point where I’m able to adress this politely, it’s beyond me that in 2024 we still cannot have accessible software for everyone, even those with bad eyesight.
I’m on MAC with a normal 4k Monitor, and please don’t give me the “change your screen resolution” talk, that’s not the point. The point is the controls are microscopic and the fonts are unreadable.
It takes the developers NO EFFORT AT ALL to pay attention to those details, they simply don’t give a flying f…
It’s up to you to make the screen resolution as fine or as coarse as you want. You can make any application UI unreadable if you use a large enough PPI. There is no single setting that is best for everyone. It depends on what your eyes are comfortable with and how far away you sit from your screen.
Not defending Steinberg here. Their software is generally not the best example of good UX and accessibility and has never been.
However, resolution does matter a lot on macOS and, unfortunately, 4K is not “normal” on it. Maybe you already know all this, but just in case… Apple’s own 27-inch 5K displays use the default resolution of 2560 x 1440 which is exactly half of 5K. This is because macOS uses 2 horizontal and 2 vertical pixels (or 3 in case of 6K displays) to draw a high-resolution point. That’s why everything is sharp (“retina”, as they call it). macOS is designed to look optimal at 2560 x 1440 on 27 inch display. At that resolution, native UI elements are neither too small nor too big.
Now, 27 inch 4K display will use the default resolution of 1920x1080 (like HD) on macOS. At this resolution everything is large and readable, but a bit too large, so we loose some screen estate. Switching to full 4K resolution will make everything ultra tiny. The optimal resolution is again 2560 x 1440, but for 4K display this resolution is fractional, so there will be some scaling artefacts and GPU has to work more, maybe also use more RAM, which will slow down the system a bit.
Bottom line is, Cubase and other software on macOS can only really be judged at 27 inch 2560 x 1440 (or an equivalent wide screen resolution).
I couldn’t agree more. Some elements are simply too small. Some markings are not even properly visible with zoom because of poor, VERY POOR, UI design choices.
I think also dB numbers on faders are 10-20% to small font. It would be nice to have extra option for font sizing. Also track naming…
I dont like HiDpi resolution of Cubase.
Fully agree, I just recently updated from C12 to C14, and so many texts and labels got thinner and smaller! Some of the labels are only 6 or 7 pixels high. And I am not even on a 4K-Screen… And adding to that there is no proper light mode, so legibility of text suffers additionally. Terrible UX!
I am sorry, but I have bad eyesight and with ages comes presbyopia which makes things worse. I am aware that Cubase never has been the best in class regarding to UI/UX, but it is really getting increasingly hard to work with it…
Hi, I have developed cataracts, and until I can see properly again I’m having terrible issues seeing the drop down menus because they are light grey with thin text. I cannot find any way to change this! I’ve changed the overall theme, but it doesn’t affect the menu boxes at all. It’s horrendous for people with impaired vision. I have my PC in dark mode and the text is big and the screen is at 125% - but unfortunately that also means that when I open some VSTs and applications in Cubase, some of it becomes hidden because there’s no way to scroll down. Do Steinberg really not care about their visually impared and older users? I’ve been using Cubase since the late 80s, and I find this really shocking!
I feel the same way, I have been trying to get used to C14 from C12 and the fonts are so small. The default on the MacBook Pro is 1728 x 1117 and the text is really tiny. Could they just make the font bigger in the Notepad. I don’t write a novel in that field. In the mix window, the “increase section height” only will increase the font on the plug in but nothing else.
Readability is so important. Especially, as you get older.
Will Steinberg ever at least acknowledge this serious issue?
Martin Jirsak, please forward this to the decision makers at Steinberg, it’s getting frustating being completely ignored on something as important as this.
but in it there’s a response from Ed Doll (Steinberg) which says the following:
"Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas - and the constructive criticism.
While I am in the support department, I can at least mention that this topic has been forwarded to our GUI team for their attention.
It is always difficult to find the right middle ground that pleases most. We received many comments on the GUI changes that came with Cubase 13 and established a new internal structure to address those. Compared to Cubase 13, Cubase 14 has the better GUI (just in my humble opinion) and we will continue working on it.
However, this is not an easy task and requires a great deal of consideration. It’s not just about improving certain parts of the UI, it’s also about staying consistent."
They are aware of it and they’re working on it - maybe just not as fast as you’d like. Competing priorities and all that.
