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letters toooo small


OldToker
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* De-lurk *

 

Hi all I just joined here.... In hopes that I can find some help ? First off I have a Brand spanking new 19" CRT monitor, I have been running Linux off and on for several years.. I think my first experience was with RH. 6.X Then I discovered MDK and have been here ever since. On all my other monitors font sizes seemed ok everything was pretty read able. without squinting. This new monitor it seems tho as I can adjust Screen Size to a point and that helps.. right now I am at 1024 x768 as mentioned I don't have to squint too badly to read what is going on but upon re-booting MDK wants to re-set my screen resolution to 1280 x 1024 Needless to say it's "SQUINT" City. My Refresh rate is.85 hz.

 

I can set my system fonts to BIG and the Folder Sizes to BIG... but then things look messed up.. and changeing to 800 x 600 res. makes things run off the screen Tho everything is nice and read able.. at that point..

 

Am I going about this all wrong.. or am I simply missing a config somewhere.????? :wall:

 

Any Help would be great.

 

OldToker

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Welcome to the board.

 

You can always change the screen resolution on the fly, using <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<+>/<->. To make this change permanent, you may need to edit the X server config file, XF86Config/XF86Config-4/Xorg (depending on the version of XFree/Xorg you're using). As root, open this file in the text editor, and locate the section

    Subsection "Display"
       Depth       24
       Modes       "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600"

The content of the line Modes may be different, most likely, you have "1280x1024" as the first entry. Put "1024x768" first. Save, Restart X, Enjoy.

.

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K.. Remember I am still a noob only been experimenting with Linux.. I can't seem to find the file you are refering to.. MDK 10.1 comes default with Xorg. and I am using KDE as desktop.

 

Not too sure of where to find the config file.

 

Can the seetings be modified Via the Control Center?

Thanks! :)

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All answers given so far are wrong.

 

:D

 

Changing the resolution is not the correct way to change the displayed size of fonts. You should use the highest resolution your monitor can display clearly and with a usable (85Hz or more) refresh rate. This will get you the sharpest display you can have.

 

Now you adjust the dpi - dots per inch - setting for Linux to adjust the fonts. If you run KDE or GNOME, go to their configuration center, find the font configuration option, and change the setting named dpi (it's under advanced in GNOME). The higher the number, the larger fonts will be displayed.

 

There is actually such a thing as a 'correct' setting (depending on your monitor and resolution), as officially, font point sizes have 'correct' values in absolute measurements (inches) - i.e., a 12 point letter A ought to be a certain, defined, size regardless of monitor resolution and so forth. Some people however prefer their fonts bigger or smaller, so you can just adjust the dpi setting until the fonts look good to you.

 

Be aware that printed output will always use the 'correct' sizes no matter what you see on the screen though (whether you set dpi to 50 or 200, and whatever your resolution, your printer will print a 12-point letter A the same size).

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adamw:

For KDE, is the 'correct size' you speak of set via the display size specification within Section Monitor in XF86Config-4 ?

 

Section "Monitor"

Identifier "monitor1"

HorizSync 30.0-115.0

VertRefresh 50.0-160.0

DisplaySize 401 302

Option "DPMS"

Modeline "1400x1050" 162 1400 1464 1656 1960 1050 1051 1054 1100 +HSync +VSync

ModeLine "1400x1050" 184.0 1400 1464 1656 1960 1050 1051 1054 1100 +hsync +vsync

EndSection

 

85+ Hz is a liitle high for a refresh rate recommendation isn't it? It has been my experience that using 85+ will make a CRT display a little blurry.

 

Just call me happy with 1280x1024 @ 75Hz :D

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daniewicz: short answer...yes. Long answer...mostly. If you have a DisplaySize set, and it's *right*, X will automatically work out and use the correct dpi value for the current resolution. So normal X apps, and KDE, will use the right dpi value.

 

GNOME, stunningly stupidly, decided that using X's dpi value was just boring, so it has its own. When you set the dpi in the GNOME font config tool you're setting a gconf key, and all GNOME and GTK+ apps use that, they don't use the X value. I have no idea why GNOME thought this would be a good idea. Anyway, practical upshot is you have to figure out what the correct value is (you can find out what value X has worked out, with xdpyinfo | grep Dots or something like that) and plug it into the GNOME configuration tool.

 

A good monitor shouldn't go blurry when displaying at a refresh rate it advertises itself as being capable of. I can use anywhere from 60Hz to 100Hz on my monitor at my preferred resolution, the display is equally sharp at any setting. 85Hz is what the EU recommends, and personally I find that's right, anything under 85Hz gives me eyestrain and headaches. Lots of people are happy with 75Hz, though, and a surprising amount don't even notice 60Hz is hideous until you point it out to them, they just wonder why they're always tired, irritated and headache-y when they go home from work. I've lost count of the numbers of co-workers whose screens I've switched from 60Hz, making them lots happier. It's a personal thing, really - if your eyes and head are happy with 75Hz, then it's fine for you, but 85Hz is the rule of thumb number I use.

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adamw,

 

you're right, changing dpi settings is the way to go (that's what I do :D ), except... OldToker does not want that :P :

I can set my system fonts to BIG and the Folder Sizes to BIG... but then things look messed up..

By the way, adamw, how exactly can I change dpi setting for GNOME and GTK+ applications?

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coverup: no, it is what he wants, because it makes 'normal' font sizes look right. What he was doing was basically increasing the font sizes used, if I understand the post correctly.

 

To set the GNOME / GTK font size you need to run the GNOME configuration centre, go to the font configuration applet and click on advanced. There's a dpi box in there. If you don't actually have GNOME installed it can be kind of tricky and I'm not actually sure how you should do it, as I'm a GNOME user and I've never run a system with KDE only. The issue was rather extensively discussed on the Cooker mailing list about a month ago and I *think* there were some instructions posted on how to do it, I'll see if I can find something when I'm home with my Cooker mail archives later.

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