For the farsighted eye the refractive power of the cornea is too low or the eye itself is too short. The light rays are focused behind the retina, and the retina itself will only receive a blurry image of the environment. As opposed to the nearsighted eye, farsightedness can be compensated by the lens of the lens of the eye, at least in part, and up to a certain age only. The eye lens can change shape, therefore increasing the refractive power which, in turn, balances the reduced refractive power of the farsighted eye for distance vision.

Distance vision of farsighted people generally remains good even at an older age. Eyeglasses need to be worn at a younger age only at a very high level of farsightedness. On the other hand, for the farsighted person, the ability to read decreases at a younger age. For the purpose of reading, the eye lens needs to change shape as well (see "presbyopia").

The farsighted eye requires part of the ability of the eye lens to change shape even for distance vision. Only a reduced ability to change shape remains for reading. Since the ability of the eye lens to change shape is reduced with increased age, the farsighted person will need reading glasses sooner than the person with normal vision. At a later stage in life, correction for distance vision will be necessary as well since the ability of the eye lens to change shape will decrease to a point that sharp images for distance vision will no longer be produced.