Introduction: How to Make Instant Reading Glasses
For those who need glasses to read the small print, here is a simple method. You can use it, in a pinch, when you have left your reading glasses behind. I and many others have independently discovered this technique. It was probably used a thousand years ago.
How It Works
Pic2 shows how to configure your thumb and the next two fingers to create a small triangular opening that you hold about an inch from your eye. Narrow the opening until your view is in focus.
You are effectively creating a pinhole lens. This gives a slight magnification and significantly increases your depth of feild (the range that is in focus). It does this by greatly limiting the amount of light going through the lens in your eye. It is like adjusting the F stop in a camera.
The 3 finger reading glass works best in brighter light. To get a wider feild of view, you can use both hands held up to both eyes (pic3).
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48 Comments
6 years ago
it works
6 years ago
Thats really helpful! Works also for shortsighted guys like me. Thanks! :)
7 years ago on Introduction
Awesome!
8 years ago
It works allright! I have also just cut a small hole in a piece of cardboard - same effect.
8 years ago on Introduction
as I understand it, this is very effective if you have no retinal damage. It's a test the opthomology department used on me recently to see if I had an infection of the retina. Brilliant, I've used it to clear my vision with my dry eye problem.
8 years ago
fantastic idea, how did I not think of this before
9 years ago on Introduction
I need reading glasses. This really works in a pinch!
9 years ago on Introduction
WOW. Simply brilliant.
9 years ago on Introduction
amazing
9 years ago on Introduction
i had a glasses made from a dark plastic with many many little holes in it, and you can use it as a reading glasses and also you see much better objects far away and much sharper. also they suppose to "repair" your eyes a bit. maybe somebody mentioned it here, but i didn't see :D:D
9 years ago on Introduction
My dad does this all the time and I always found it funny. Now at least I have a logic explanation :D He says this is the way a fly see.
9 years ago on Introduction
So simple, it's amazing :)
9 years ago on Introduction
fantastic site thanks
9 years ago on Introduction
Closing your eyelids almost complete will doe the job to !
9 years ago on Introduction
I laughed out lout at this simple solution. My great eyesight has diminished horribly with age and with my BS in Physics this didn't didn't occur to me.
9 years ago on Introduction
OK, this worked. I just read super-fine print off one of my engineering drawings that normally require 3-4x mag to see!!! I'm an optical engineer, but it never dawned on me to make a pinhole viewer like this. My hat's off to you.
9 years ago on Introduction
Awesome, thank you!
9 years ago on Introduction
While not personally thousands of years old, and have never discovered this technique on my own, I found this to be genius!
Thanks
9 years ago on Introduction
If you have myopia you can put your eyes stretched (like a Chinese imitation) and that can correct your vision a few. Other tricks xD
9 years ago on Introduction
If you ever wondered why you have eyebrows, they are a carry-over from human and animal beginnings. 100000 years ago eyebrows were long and bushy and draped down over your eyes, and you looked through your eyebrows. They shielded your eyes from harsh sunlight, but mainly they caused the same effect as the pinhole glasses you have seen. Hold a real fine piece of screen material up and you get the same effect. You used to be able to see things up close and magnified, and at greater distance like binoculars.Of course if you have a caveman relative, you already know this.