[DUG] Screen sizes :-)

[Ross Levis]

I run my laptop and desktop LCD (1440 x 960) widescreen at 120 DPI font
size.  Sure some badly designed apps don't display correctly, but all the
apps I use regularly work fine, including my own of course.

I can't easily read size 1 font on 96 DPI.  My eyes are not what they use to
be.

Ross.

-----Original Message-----
From: delphi-bounces at delphi.org.nz [mailto:delphi-bounces at delphi.org.nz] On
Behalf Of Rob van der Linde
Sent: Wednesday, 26 September 2007 7:36 p.m.
To: NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List
Subject: RE: [DUG] Screen sizes :-)

On Wed, 2007-09-26 at 18:54 +1200, Maurice Butler wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> The other advantage of tritron is that for photgraphic editing you can
> calibrate to have accurate colours - lcd is limited in its colour depth so
> the colours on the screen are not close enough for professional work
> 

I use to think this too, and it has been like that for ages, but not
anymore. I had an excellent Philips 202P4 22" Trinitron CRT (bought new
around 4 years ago). I bought a Trinitron at the time for two reasons:

 - Better, more accurate colour
 - The ability to run any resolution and still get a sharp picture
 - LCD's at that size were too expensive 4 years ago.

About 6 months ago, the CRT died. Luckily, it was still under it's 5
year warranty and Philips replaced it with an equivalent LCD, the 20"
1600x1200 200P model. This was excellent, as I always ran my CRT at that
res anyway.

I was surprised how much LCD's had evolved since then, as the LCD
actually outperformed, or at least rivalled the CRT in colour! It also
has a DVI plug, so things are super sharp.

<rant>
One thing that is annoying is that Windows XP (and now Vista too)
haven't moved with the trend of increasingly fine screen resolutions.
The problem is that the fonts in XP are too small and too sharp, so that
you can barely read them, and you are forced to turn on ClearType to see
them better. However, I do not like ClearType, as I can actually "see"
the multicoloured effect on the font that you are not supposed to be
able to see, no matter how much I play with ClearType tuner, it looks
ugly and I can see the multicoloured effect.

There are actually two problems with font rendering in XP and Vista,

problem 1: you cannot use monochrome font smoothig, and if you do, only
fonts above a certain size are smoothed, which defeats the purpose on an
LCD -- you still can't read the small fonts very well that way. The only
other alternative is ClearType, but I do not like ClearType! So with
Windows, I am in between a rock and a hard place, thanks M$!

problem 2: screens are getting finer, and Windows is using the same font
size it has since windows 95 or 3.11, and needs to move with the times
of increasing screen resolutions. Although you can increase the font DPI
setting, it screws up many applications, and they get out of preportion,
so you are forced to pretty much leave Windows running at the default
DPI and have to squint at fonts, thanks M$!

Luckily, I now use Linux and it fixes all my problems with my LCD, I can
use either Monochrome or ClearType font smoothing, and when I use
Monochrome (which I prefer), all font sizes (including smaller fonts)
are smoothed and look damn sexy on the LCD! Linux also uses a much
larger font for widgets by default, which is far more with the times
when it comes to modern screens. The Linux fonts are just so easy on the
eye compared to Windows, and you can still easily change the DPI without
screwing up the applications (because GTK applications are designed
different, they position widgets using a layout grid instead of
absolutely positioned).

Bottom line is, I love the fonts in Linux, and I find it really hard
going back to Windows, I really wish Microsoft did something about the
fonts, but I somehow doubt it, so I am sticking with Linux.
</rant>

Ah, I still use Pascal though, hence why I am on this list still, I just
use Free Pascal and GTK+ (without Lazarus), but still like to keep upto
date with whats happening with Delphi.

> Maurice