Recent discussion about book and quill have given rise to any idea to make reading text in the game easier, particularly in splitscreen mode... the introduction of a hand-held telescope (spyglass). This could be crafted using glass, gold and redstone and when held by the player would zoom in on any item containing text on the screen (e.g. sign). Moving it left or right would scroll the view. This is very similar to how drawing a bow zooms in a little on the intended target.
With some expansion and modification, the idea could also be made to work as an overall zoom feature whenever it is in the player's inventory for use with text boxes (such as when typing a sign) and even for reading things like the number of a certain item in the inventory from a distance (i.e. while sitting on the sofa and playing in splitscreen, these numbers are often currently very difficult to read without getting up and walking closer to the TV). It might also allow the text boxes to only open in one individual player's portion of the screen in splitscreen mode; and thereby, allow the other players to continue playing normally while their friend types a sign (as opposed to halting play for everyone on that TV as currently happens. This might also enable book and quill to work without halting play for everyone in splitscreen for extended periods of time as people write in or read the larger amounts of text anticipated with books.
With some expansion and modification, the idea could also be made to work as an overall zoom feature whenever it is in the player's inventory for use with text boxes (such as when typing a sign) and even for reading things like the number of a certain item in the inventory from a distance (i.e. while sitting on the sofa and playing in splitscreen, these numbers are often currently very difficult to read without getting up and walking closer to the TV). It might also allow the text boxes to only open in one individual player's portion of the screen in splitscreen mode; and thereby, allow the other players to continue playing normally while their friend types a sign (as opposed to halting play for everyone on that TV as currently happens. This might also enable book and quill to work without halting play for everyone in splitscreen for extended periods of time as people write in or read the larger amounts of text anticipated with books.