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Old March 28th 19, 10:00 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
VanguardLH[_2_]
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Default Making CRT easier to read?

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

In message , VanguardLH
writes:
[]
The Microtek 815c's pixel size is 0.28 mm for an 18" monitor. For
ailing eyesight, you'll want a higher resolution (and bigger) monitor
with smaller pixel size or increased pixel density,


I disagree: he really needs _larger_ pixel size. He'll have difficulty
finding it, though, as they aren't making them (except for pitch-side
and other advertising displays).


Larger pixel size (aka pixel pitch) means more grainy painting of
everything: text and graphics. His monitor has 0.28 mm. If, for
example, he went to a monitor with 0.36 mm then everything would look
more coarse.

I remember being at some computer store with a buddy from work (we both
worked in QA for hardware and software development). There was a
fantastic sale price on a monitor on display, but it looked fuzzy. Both
of us played with the monitor's controls to see if it had been setup
incorrectly and if we could get a sharp screen. Nope, nothing we did
would make the display look clearer. Then we noticed in small print on
the sales flyer next to the monitor that it had 0.36 mm pixel size.
Geez, no wonder it was so fuzzy.

Think about: if there were only 1 pixel for the entire size of the
screen, there would be nothing to see except just that one pixel. You
couldn't paint any characters and the only graphic you could paint would
be one large circle or rectangle.

Or consider the old dot-matrix printers. At first, they had a 5x7
(width x height) dot matrix to print a character. The NLQ (Near Letter
Quality) dot-matrix printers would make 2 passes. The platten moved
slightly down on the reverse pass effectively doubling the number of
dots used to print a character. NLQ doubled the dot density meaning you
had more dots per inch. You want more pixels per inch to provide finer
granularity. The larger the pixel pitch, the less of them per inch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_pitch
"Dot pitch may be measured in linear units (with smaller numbers meaning
higher resolution), usually millimeters (mm), or as a rate, for example
dots per inch (with a larger number meaning higher resolution)."

With *smaller* pixels, you can get a higher DPI at the same character
size hence a smoother character. That's for the native resolution of
the monitor. Setting a higher DPI in Windows means using more dots or
pixels which are fixed in size, so the character gets larger and easier
to read for those having a tough time reading tiny characters.

and then up the DPI setting in Windows.


Agreed, that's needed. Doesn't give _much_ range variation, though )-:.


I don't remember XP's settings for DPI. In Windows 7, you can select
pre-defined settings, like 100% (96 DPI), 125% (120 DPI), 150% (144
DPI), or 200% (192 DPI), or you can use a slider for a variable DPI.
From what I found online for DPI setting in XP:

https://i-technet.sec.s-msft.com/en-...-us,VS.85).png

So, you could use the presets of normal (96 DPI, or 100%) or large (120
DPI, or 125%), or set a custom DPI. When you elected custom sized, you
got:

https://i-technet.sec.s-msft.com/en-...-us,VS.85).png

That's the same slider and drop-down list dialog that is in Windows 7.
There are LOTS of settings for DPI.


The larger monitor at higher resolution will make
the text characters smaller in size


So _isn't_ what's needed; however, is probably all that's available.


If the larger monitor supports higher resolutions (which is usually the
case) then more pixels are available per inch. However, fonts are
defined at specific heights, and a higher resolution which means smaller
pixels means the characters will be smaller. So you use MORE pixels per
character by upping the DPI.

native resolution of the LCD monitor. Native resolution per specs for
that monitor is 1280 x 1024


If you say so ...

at 75 Hz.


Hmm. Not sure I'd call that a resolution (-:.


That is the native screen resolution found online for the specifications
of the OP's Microtek 815c LCD monitor.

You can do the same if you go to a larger
monitor with higher resolution. The higher resolution will actually
make text get smaller (at the same DPI, the text will still use the same
number of pixels or dots), so to increase the text size you would up the
DPI setting in Windows.


As far as you can. On this (W7) machine, the default choices are only
100% and 125%; if I click "Set custom text size (DPI)", it looks as if
that adds only 150% and 200%; IIRR, XP didn't even have that option.


Must be a restriction in your configuration of Windows 7 or what the
monitor reports to Windows for its specs (if you're using HDMI).

For Windows XP, I found pics of the dialogs at:
https://i-technet.sec.s-msft.com/en-...-us,VS.85).png
https://i-technet.sec.s-msft.com/en-...-us,VS.85).png

For Windows 7, here are the pics for DPI settings:
https://www.sevenforums.com/attachme...w7-display.jpg
then click on "Set custom text size (DPI)" to see:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/Fq0XS.png
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