Anderton
Actually...don't give up quite yet...
I checked out the Windows Ease of Access functions. There's a Magnifier which if you're anything like me, when you first try it you'll think it's useless because the default magnifies a small section to fit the entire screen. However it's highly configurable. There are keyboard shortcuts to open and close it, as well as various viewing options - "lens" covers a user-settable amount of screen real estate, and you can zoom in and out with the lens with keyboard short cuts. If you zoom all the way out, the lens shows the normal screen size, but then you can zoom in on small type.
There's also a "dock" mode that puts a magnified strip along the top, and magnifies whatever is under the mouse cursor. You might find this serves your needs best.
Just don't dismiss the magnifier out of hand without learning how it works...you can customize it really easily to fit your needs and workflow. Just being able to bring it in and out using shortcuts is a big help.
On a related subject, I too have always found the timeline numbers etc. too teeny. However modifying a theme for high contrast in the timeline makes all the difference in the world.
Muchos gracias, Craig!
I monkeyed a bit with the magnifier settings, and I think it will be useful.
Forgive my ignorance, if necessary: "modifying a theme for high contrast in the timeline" -- That's a Sonar-specific theme editor function? (I haven't yet experimented with the theme editor.)