accessibilityfontresolutionui
I can adjust a few things, such as the Dock, but I don't see a way to say, "I want 1080p resolution, but I'm sitting 5 feet away and want bigger menus, fonts, etc across the entire system."
This is for a computer to be used as an entertainment center, mac mini 2007 running OS X 10.6.8.
I can upgrade to Lion if that provides a useful solution.
How do I increase the sizes of everything system wide so it's readable from a distance, while keeping the high resolution I desire for movies and games?
It is possible to to change/customize every font/font-size within iTunes.app, that is used for the menu, pop-up dialogs, view-field etc..
In order to do so navigate to /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj and make a backup of Localized.rsrc first, just to be on the save side.
Then download ThemePark3.1 in order to open and edit the Localized.rsrc file. Once you edited the font(s)/size to your liking, you need to save your changes from within ThemePark.
It might be, that you also need to reboot first to see the changes!!
Edit:
There is also an iTunes.rsrc file under /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/ which might be of help and lately .css stylesheet-files are being used for theming as well (in Linux (GTK3).
If that is also true for 10.7 (still running 10.6.8, therefore can only guess), please confirm this information!! Basically "simple" images can be drawn and rendered from code instead of using single image files, in png, tiff, jpg - format.
Those .css files also manage font information, like font-style, color values, size etc...
Apple doesn't have an option for you to do that. However, you can try TinkerTool. You can download it at no cost.
Screenshot taken from TinkerTool website.
Best Answer
There is a feature that's currently experimental called HiDPI that may do what you want. Like the retina displays on the iPhone and iPad, HiDPI mode creates a "logical" resolution that's half the current resolution on your display but uses all the physical pixels to keep the image sharp. This results in all the user interface elements appearing much larger, but with no lack in clarity. For example, if you're outputting to a 1080p TV with a resolution of 1920x1080, the HiDPI resolution would be 960x540, and all the elements on the screen would be the same size as if you were outputting that physical resolution.
To enable HiDPI mode in Mac OS X Lion:
Download the "Graphics Tools for Xcode" download from Apple. This download requires you to enter an Apple ID, which you most likely have and can get for free.
Mount the DMG
Open the "Quartz Debug" app
In the menu bar, select "Window", then "UI Resolution"
Check "Enable HiDPI display modes"
You'll be prompted to log out and log back in. If multiple accounts are logged in, they must all log out for the change to work.
Once you log back in, go to System Preferences, then Displays. You will see the new HiDPI modes there.
For your 1080p TV, select "960x540 (HiDPI)"
P.S. If you're curious what HiDPI mode looks like, the screenshots I've taken are both in HiDPI. Click on them to see them full sized.