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Hi-Res LCD Pains

Mark.J

Administrator
Staff member
ISPreview Team
I've just got a lovely new 17" LCD screen, the problem is that it's native desktop resolution of 1280*1024 is incredibly hard for me the read.

I can increase the text size of the desktop, but this distorts some of my icons (12+ pixel size, 11 is ok, but still too small) and reading websites still suffers (also, upping text sizes on websites just pushes them out of format, making it even worse).

Does anybody have any suggestions for how I can make my desktop readable at the native res?
 
Glasses?

Or you could try changing the font size of the OS

Display Properties - Advanced - General Tab - Display (win 2000)

Also playing with the colour settings within the OS might help.

I am assuming that you have set the OS to the correct resolution, as wth flat screens if the OS is set to a different resolution, it can be unreadable.
 
We recently kitted out our office with new 17” monitors. These too had a native resolution of 1280*1024.

I quite agree that the text is absolutely tiny, I don’t require glasses and I struggled to adjust to the screen resolution.

People who don’t have these kind of monitors can recreate this. Equipped with a toilet roll tube, stand 10 feet away from your monitor, looking through the toilet role tube, point it towards your monitor, that is exactly how it looks!

Short of giving everyone in the office magnifying glasses (EU Compliant of course), we set all the resolutions to 1024*768. Although not as sharp as the other image, it is still very much an improvement on the native resolution. We also pressed the Auto button on the monitor to, makes the screen go wiggly for a few seconds, which seem to have made it even clearer?
 
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kalnet4u said:
We recently kitted out our office with new 17” monitors. These too had a native resolution of 1280*1024.

I quite agree that the text is absolutely tiny, I don’t require glasses and I struggled to adjust to the screen resolution.

People who don’t have these kind of monitors can recreate this. Equipped with a toilet roll tube, stand 10 feet away from your monitor, looking through the toilet role tube, point it towards your monitor, that is exactly how it looks!

Short of giving everyone in the office magnifying glasses (EU Compliant of course), we set all the resolutions to 1024*768. Although not as sharp as the other image, it is still very much an improvement on the native resolution. We also pressed the Auto button on the monitor to, makes the screen go wiggly for a few seconds, which seem to have made it even clearer?

Very Strange. We have lots of 17" LCD Displays used for CAD work and the text is prefectly readable
 
Glad i stuck with good old fashioned CRT technology, might take up more room on the desk but at least you can alter it to whatever resolution you need with no detrimental side effects.
 
Short of using a specialised anti-aliased LCD font (which I think is what happens with Linux distros) I don't have any suggestions. CRTs are old fashioned and bulky but still provide the best displays by some margin. Unless LCDs become dirt cheap or better technologies come along e.g. OLED (if it doesn't fade), or one or two others, I won't be ditching my cheapo 19" monitor. :confused:
 
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fresnel lens anyone???
 
I'm sat here writing this at 1280x1024, on a 17" CRT, which I've used here for a good 2 years or more with no problems. This monitor does 1600x1200 as well, but that's only at 75Hz, and anything below 85Hz gives me headaches.

You can try increasing font size, and also, if using XP, turn on or off cleartype to see which setting you prefer.

I'm looking to invest in a 20" TFT doing 1600x1200 though....
 
I said in my first post that I'd already tried increasing text/font size, but that tends to distort data, be it taskbar icons or website formats. Currently I've forced it back to 1024*768, but I'd rather be using 1280*768 because it's crisp and part of the reason for getting such a good LCD.

Never the less I find that resolution very hard to read, my eyes have to strain to see all the shrunken details and information can look rather ugly on websites when stretched so far across the screen.

Knowing me I’ll find a solution and will probably re-design ISP Review to suit it ;) .
 
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Sorry, doh, I meant 1280*1024 ;).

Trying to live with the hi-res ATM and looking at different styles and fonts to stop myself having to squint.
 
i just changed mine to 1280x1024, the text is smaller but still able to read it

just changed back to 1024x768 - as thats the setting i've always used - and not as sharp - but still fine - been using this setting for almost 2 years now - notting wrong will my screen - i don't care about the native size - but does look abit better - if needed you can change it to 1280x1024 !

if u can't read 1280x1024 - then only thing u can so is - fiddle with setting - or get a bigger screen
 
Mark.J said:
I've just got a lovely new 17" LCD screen, the problem is that it's native desktop resolution of 1280*1024 is incredibly hard for me the read.

I can increase the text size of the desktop, but this distorts some of my icons (12+ pixel size, 11 is ok, but still too small) and reading websites still suffers (also, upping text sizes on websites just pushes them out of format, making it even worse).

Does anybody have any suggestions for how I can make my desktop readable at the native res?

Go to display properties,
Advanced
Try changing DPI settings, normal size 96 DPI.
Set mine at 112 DPI
Worked for me.
 
I'm using an 18.1" TFT running at 1280x1024 and it's fine :)

I'd just get a bigger TFT... mine at non-native resolutions looks awful!
 
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