Zoomtext 9.0 vs. Lunarplus 6.5

Lee Huffman has compiled a list of features commonly attributed to screen magnifiers and integrated screen magnifier/screen readers. The most important features include documentation and electronic help, ease of installation, control panel, magnification and display features, and speech output. For each of these features, Huffman evaluated the performance in Microsoft Word, Excel and Internet Explorer on a Pentium 3, 1133MHz computer running Windows XP Professional and Outlook Express, and with 256MB RAM.

ZoomText, Version 9.0

The newly enhanced version has a better ability to customize aspects of display and speech output than the original one. This is a definite improvement for users with low vision. ZoomText also has many new features that help to increase usability of program.

Documentation could be improved, as well as the ability of the DocReader toolbar to be resized. It would also be helpful to be able to adjust the speech rate more quickly. Ensuring the clarity of the speech and decreasing lag between words during high-speed settings could make the NeoSpeech synthesizer a more efficient tool.

LunarPlus 6.5

LunarPlus, a robust screen-magnification program, incorporates basic speech output, giving users the ability to customize the screen display to their ones needs. Making the documents more streamlined and simple would contribute to the overall improvement of the product.

LunarPlus needs major improvements in its ability to adjust magnification on the fly while using the Document Read feature. The speech output needs to be improved as well, and a more human sounding voice is badly needed. Extending speech support to the Internet Explorer and Outlook, as well as check boxes, radio buttons, etc., will make LunarPlus more user friendly.

Conclusion

On careful comparison of the two screen-magnification programs, it appears that ZoomText better suits the needs of computer users with a low vision. There are four main reasons:

• With comparison to LunarPlus, ZoomText shows superior speech support for all applications, a user-friendly control panel and better organized documentation.
• Furthermore, ZoomText has many more features that have been refined and made available in the new version.
• ZoomText exhibits a more user-friendly control panel.
• ZoomText has better-organized and easy-to-understand set of documentation.

Granted that LunarPlus is not a screen reader but a screen magnifier, supplied at same price as ZoomText, the latter proves to be more efficient and economical.

Source: AccessWorld®