Read it Big updates itself: when a new build is out, the app offers it to you. Every build that reached users is listed here, newest first, in plain language. You can check which one you are running from About Read it Big in the menu bar icon.
Version 1.0 Build 133 3 August 2026
The macOS 14 fix that the previous build got wrong, now confirmed on the machine where it actually happened.
- macOS 14: the fan of arcs is gone for real this time. Build 126 tried to fix it and could not, for a reason worth telling. The lens carried a flag meaning “do not capture me”. On macOS 14 that flag was ignored by the capture, but respected in the list of capturable windows: it removed the lens from exactly where the app had to find it in order to exclude it, and left it where it was supposed to disappear. The fix cancelled itself out. The flag is gone, the lens is now found and excluded properly, and a second safety net covers the case where it is not.
- The app now records which exclusion path it took, so if this ever comes back the log says why in one line instead of costing another round of guesswork.
Version 1.0 Build 126 2 August 2026
A serious fix for macOS 14, a licence you can actually find, and the trial extension that quietly did nothing.
- macOS 14: the lens no longer films itself. On macOS 14 the magnified area could dissolve into a fan of concentric arcs, and the zoom looked far past its limit. The app draws the lens over the screen and then captures that same area, so the lens has to be excluded from its own capture: on macOS 14 the mechanism it relied on was being ignored. Both symptoms had one cause, because in a feedback loop the magnification multiplies with every frame while the real setting stays exactly where you put it.
- You can find where to enter your licence. The menu entry now says Enter your license key rather than just License, and the last step of the setup offers the choice between the running trial and entering a key you already have. Before, the panel only showed up on its own when the trial expired, which is two weeks after the moment you needed it.
- The three extra trial days actually work. They used to be added to the date your trial began, so if you came back more than three days after it ended, clicking the button did nothing at all and quietly used up your one-time extension. They now run from the moment you ask for them, which is the whole point: this exists for people who forgot to try the app, and those people come back late.
- Asking for those days is now an explicit request rather than a silent gift, and getting them (or activating a licence) is celebrated properly, with confetti.
- Setup is clearer. The trial-or-licence step behaves like the trackpad-or-mouse one, its two sections are properly separated, and the final button confirms your choice instead of merely closing the window.
- You can tell which build you have without installing anything: the version and build now appear next to the download on the site, in the disk image name, and in the Finder’s Get Info panel.
Version 1.0 Build 106 1 August 2026
The release that fixed the free version for people without a trackpad, and stopped the keyboard shortcut from misbehaving.
- Holding the keyboard shortcut to peek is now free. It used to be switched off entirely without a licence, which meant that on a desktop Mac with no trackpad the free version did nothing at all. The line between free and full is now the feature, not the device you own.
- No more system beep when holding the shortcut. The key was slipping through to whatever app was in front, which also meant your shortcut was landing inside other programs.
- Esc closes the lens without also reaching the app underneath, where it could cancel a dialog or drop you out of full screen.
- Command-Tab now closes the magnification instead of fighting with it. Before, the app switcher itself got magnified, and then so did whatever app you picked.
- The info panel shown with a held magnification is lighter and less intrusive.
- Setup asks whether you use a trackpad or only a mouse, and the tutorial then teaches the gesture you will actually use.
- Setup is easier to read: bigger secondary text, the two permissions grouped in their own box, more space between sections.
- Setup warns you in advance about the macOS reminder that says the app accessed your screen N times, and explains that the number is simply how many times you magnified something.
- The purchase panel stays in front and returns if you trigger it again. Before it could slip behind a window, and the only symptom was a feature that looked broken.
- The purchase panel now says what you can keep doing for free, naming the exact keys configured on your Mac.
- Privacy policy rewritten line by line against what the app actually does, and third-party credits added to the About panel.
Version 1.0 Build 78 30 July 2026
Mostly about finding the app and understanding its settings.
- Launching the app when it is already running now opens Preferences. Read it Big lives only in the menu bar, so if a menu bar manager hid its icon there was previously no way back in: it looked like an app that would not start.
- Pinch behaviour became an explicit choice between a gradual dial and a fixed starting level, instead of a checkbox whose “off” state quietly meant something entirely different.
- Starting zoom moved out of the keyboard section, where it was greyed out even while it governed the trackpad, and it now shows the level actually in use. It also starts gentler, at 150%.
- Zoom levels are written plainly, so 2.5x can no longer be misread as something enormous.
Version 1.0 Build 70 21 July 2026
The first 1.0 build, with the freeze fixed and the lens made calmer to use.
- Fixed a freeze that could hang the app when the purchase prompt appeared over an active magnification. The prompt is now a normal window that never blocks the app.
- The purchase prompt no longer appears on alternate attempts only, which had made it look random.
- Panning has a tolerance band of about 100 pixels past the window edge, so reaching controls parked right at the border no longer takes surgical precision.
- Maximum zoom raised to 10x, with a note explaining that past roughly 200% the image is only enlarged, not sharper.
- The License window was redesigned: app icon, larger text, a clear call to action.
- Automatic updates fixed. Different builds were being published under the same filename, so the update check could report that an update was signed incorrectly.
Found something that does not work? The Send feedback button inside the app attaches the diagnostic log for you. A real person reads every message.