On 4/25/2012 2:07 PM, Duaine Hechler wrote:
On 04/25/2012 06:24 AM, Carl Hartung wrote:
On Wed, 25 Apr 2012 04:29:32 -0500 Duaine Hechler
wrote: It's very simple - I, permanently, don't want to see - everything - that small. I like 1024 x 768. Hi Duane,
Excuse me for intruding if you already know this stuff, but I'm providing it in case you don't so you can make a fully informed decision.
The whole point of adjusting DPI while leaving the display at native resolution is to make "everything" exactly the size that you want it, be that larger (for people like me who hate squinting while wearing reading glasses) *or* smaller (as I used to configure my old, lower resolution displays to get as much working 'real estate' as possible ... before I needed reading glasses.)
#1) 1,280 x 1,024 is a 5:4 aspect ratio, meaning there are five physical pixels across for every four vertical pixels:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
#2) 1,024 x 768 is a 4:3 aspect ratio, meaning there are four physical pixels across for every three vertical pixels:
. . . . . . . . . . . .
#3) 1,280 x 1,024 is 'more square' to the eye than 1,024 x 768
#4) Forcing your 1,280 x 1,024 display to emulate 1,024 x 768 pixels can only be accomplished in two ways:
a. the emulated 4:3 display field is 'stretched to fit' the native 5:4 resolution and this distorts the output. It causes circles to appear as ellipses and squares to appear as rectangles.
b. activating only the center 1,024 x 768 pixels avoids the distortions but it leaves a band (or 'fat border') of unused pixels at the perimeter of the display, thereby *reducing* available workspace.
#5) If you run the display at it's native resolution of 1,280 x 1,024, it is then possible to adjust the DPI (dots per inch) setting to make literally "everything," page size, fonts and graphics included, larger or smaller to suit your taste. This approach uses all the available display 'real estate' while keeping circles round and squares square.
At 120 DPI a bitmap of 360 x 360 pixels displays as a 3" square
At 96 DPI the same graphic displays as a 3.75" square (larger)
At 72 DPI it displays as a 5" square ... much larger
This is the "zoom" effect that Felix alluded to.
Of course, the system belongs to you and you're free to configure it any way you want. I've just guessed from your response that you hadn't quite 'grokked' what Felix was trying to explain.
hth& regards,
Carl No, I don't fully understand this because:
a) Yes, I understand aspect ratios
b) I've been running 1024x768 for about 5 or more years
c) The monitor is not emulating anything. When I hit the monitors settings button, it says that it is displaying at 1024 x 768, although it says "Optimum" 1280 x 1024. So the monitor is displaying what it's set for.
d) Everything seems to be displayed correctly - circles are circles and squares are squares - so nothing is getting "stretched"
Duaine
It IS getting stretched. The monitor IS "emulating" 1024x768. A 1024x768 pixel does not exactly align with _any_ of the pixels on your display. Every pixel of 1024x768 information is being displayed as some closest approximation of some small group of the monitors 1280x1024 pixels. They are saying that the most technically correct way to get what you want, larger text, icons, and widgets, is to tell the X server the correct size of you monitor so that it can correctly scale the things it displays to you. It will do a better job and produce cleaner imagery than letting the monitor scale everything. But all that said, you should still be free to do it the "wrong" way if you want. Forcing the monitor to scale an arbitrary incoming signal to fill the screen is crude but entirely your prerogative. I kind of wish more of the answers would tackle the question you asked instead of trying to get you to accept an answer to a question you didn't ask. But I'm guilty of doing that myself if I think the asker has no idea what they're asking about. -- bkw -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org