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LCD MONITOR RESOLUTION
OK-WHAT AM I MISSING?
LIKE MOST PEOPLE, I JUST UPGRADED TO A LCD MONITOR FROM A CRT. I ALSO THINK I'M PART OF THE HUGE MAJORITY THAT USES THE COMPUTER MAINLY FOR THE INTRANET. THESE LCD MONITORS ARE SUPPOSE TO WORK BEST AT THE HIGHEST RESOLUTION OF 1280x1024. DOES ANYONE EVERY USE THAT RESOLUTION?? ALL IT DOES IS MAKE EVERYTHING SO UNBEARABLY SMALL. GRANTED, YOU CAN GET MORE ON THE SCREEN, BUT MOST WEB PAGES ARE SIZED TO FIT A LOWER RESOLUTION LIKE 1024x768. I GOT A 19 INCH SO EVERYTHING WOULD BE BIGGER AND EASIER TO READ. THIS SUPPOSIBLY "NATIVE/OPTIMAL" RESOLUTION MAKES IT SMALLER THAN A 15 INCH MONITOR. WHY BOTHER GETTING A LARGE MONITOR? WHEN I SET IT AT A LOWER RESOLUTION (BAD TERM),(IT SHOULD BE LABELED AS "LARGER RESOLUTION" AS HIGHER RESOLUTION MEANS EVERYTHING YOU READ IS LIKE THE FINE PRINT ON THE BACK OF A LOAN APPLICATION) THE TEXT IS A LITTLE FUZZY; BUT AT LEAST I CAN READ IT. TO ME, THE OPTIMAL RESOLUTION IS THE TEXT/IMAGE SIZE THAT CAN BE SEEN NORMALLY AND CENTERED ON THE SCREEN AND THIS IS NOT 1280x1024.
Message Edited by HENRY2HENRY2 on 10-15-2003 01:08 AM
DELL-Jesse L
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16.7K Posts
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October 15th, 2003 13:00
HENRY2HENRY2,
Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.
That is normal. The higher the resolution is the smaller the text will be. You can go into the Display Settings and click the Appearance tab. From there you can change the font size to large. Try setting the resoluton to 1024x768 to see if that will work for you.
HENRY2HENRY2
4 Posts
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October 15th, 2003 16:00
tomintx
1K Posts
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October 15th, 2003 22:00
Surprisingly you do become accustomed to the higher resolution. Another little trick is take advantage of the zoom feature, in many web pages you can increase the text size quite a bit. Hold down the Ctrl key, and spin your mouse wheel, this also works in many Office apps as well. Also it is important that the text at this size be very sharp and crisp, so be sure if you have XP, to use clear type. Here is a wizard in case you haven't seen it to set it to your liking. Hope you find this useful.
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/cleartypeactivate.htm
G_W_B
153 Posts
0
October 16th, 2003 00:00
ccnme91
15 Posts
0
October 19th, 2003 18:00
There is one more setting that you can try at least when you are surfing the internet with internet explorer. With explorer open Go to VIEW Then go to TEXT SIZE and increase you text size inside of internet explorer.
Good Luck
Chris
Palitigate
1 Message
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December 18th, 2003 14:00
I am having the same problem. I just replaced the motherboard in my Dell Inspiron 8100 Laptop and since then cannot see full screen with normal sized icons, windows et. cet. I use AOL and that is where things really go south. My buddy list is tiny, tool and task bars cause me to squint, all windows are just small and not properly sized. I have lowered resolution as suggested in this thread, but that just decreases the size of my screen. So that is not good either. I enlarged the icons on my desktop so they are now normal sized, but can't fix everything. I am so frustrated. THere has to be a solution to this since I did not have this issue with the old motherboard.
ANdrew
robnalex
720 Posts
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December 18th, 2003 14:00
Many of the new users of LCD monitors complaining about the appearance have not yet taken the time to adjust the settings, not the resolution, which should be at the monitor's native setting.
For the best performance and display quality of most LCD monitors 19" and smaller, your display resolution should be set to 1280 x 1024 which is the native resolution of the monitor. You can adjust these other display settings to compensate for the smaller icons and text:
Go to display properties/settings/advanced and you can change the DPI setting.
Under display properties/appearance/font size select large fonts.
Under display properties/appearance/effects clear the 1st box, check the 2nd box and select ClearType.
For additional enhancement use the Microsoft ClearType Tuner, found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/customize/cleartype/tuner/default.asp
Message Edited by robnalex on 12-18-2003 10:39 AM
robnalex
720 Posts
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December 18th, 2003 16:00
Anything less than the native resolution will produce an inferior display on an LCD monitor. The default windows display settings will produce text and icons that are too small for most preferences. You can compensate for this by making the adjustments to the settings that I posted above, without lowering the resolution and producing a lousy display quality.
Dysseron
96 Posts
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December 18th, 2003 16:00
If we just consider monitor size for a moment (ie, consider two CRTs) and you exchange your 15" for a 19" (both CRTs) you will get a "larger" image at the same resolution. So, if you are used to running your 15" CRT at 800x600 and then you run your 19" CRT at 800x600, your icons and text will be a bit larger on the 19". The advantage of going to a higher resolution, like 1024x768 or 1280x1024 is that you can get more screen "real estate" at one time. So, I can see more of the excel spreadsheet at one time, or a larger web-page without scrolling. You are right, that when you set the resolution higher, the pixels appear smaller, so that if an image is 100 pixels wide, that would represent 12.5% of the screen if the resolution is set to 800x600 (irrespective of physical screen size). However, that same image, on the same monitor would only represent 7.81% of the screen if the monitor is set to 1280x1024, thereby appearing smaller.
Many, many people that I know like the 1280x1024 on a 19" CRT. I use that resolution at home. If you don't like it, fine, change it to whatever you like.
Your real problem seems to be that on an LCD monitor of 19" the 1280x1024 is the only resolution that provides the clearest image, yet this resolution is not to your liking. So, you can't really set the resolution lower than this. I would say return it.
But, the benefit of the larger monitor is the ability to set it to a higher resolution, get more "screen real estate" and still have an acceptable size image. Before I had my 19" CRT, I was using a 17" CRT. I could set the 17" to 1280x1024 but the text and images were way too small. However, this resolution on the 19" works fine, for me.
Mele20
140 Posts
0
December 18th, 2003 22:00
Your link to customizing the Microsoft Clear type is bad. This one should work:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/ctpref.htm?fname=%20&fsize=
Thing is Microsoft Clear Type has absolutely zero effect on the readability of the text on this monitor. I think it borders on the criminal that Dell would sell a monitor that relies solely on a third party tweak to be usable! What if the tweak disappears in a year? Plus, the third party tweak I found gives choices for customization of the contrast, but I see absolutely no difference in the contrast no matter where I put the slider. This tweak does make the text smooth instead of the fuzzy, spidery faint text that I had been seeing.
The bad thing though is that the tweak works on web pages, but does not work on such things as Eulas, most help files, Spy Bot Search and Destroy windows, Ping Plotter windows, most installer windows for programs, many, many things where the text is still so fine, faint, spidery instead of smooth that it almost unreadable. I now have to either ask for help in a forum because I can't read any program's help files or call the company. I barely can read my Linksy router's information. Can't read the Diskeeper Pro help file, lots of stuff I still can't read.
Dell told me earlier to just return this monitor because they felt I wasn't "discriminating" enough to enjoy it. I was told to instead go to CompUSA and buy a monitor I liked. What an attitude! All the Dell techs never once told me to try either Microsoft Clear Type or this third party tweak. They told me to change the resolution to 800x600 and to enlarge the text on IE (they have never heard of Firebird or Mozilla or Opera) and that was it. I wasn't even told to increase the DPI to 120 or to try Firebird or Mozilla because those browsers are easy to increase text size and with Firebird you can use an extension to override the default text size so it always displays at the size you want. (I was already using these browsers mostly, but what about people having this problem who don't know how much easier it is to get the text readable in Firebird/Mozilla than in IE)?
The supervisor also told me to get the latest Nvidia drivers from here at Dell and warned me to not get them at Nvidia. He said it was extremely important to NEVER get drivers from anywhere but Dell. He said the new drivers would fix the spidery text problem. Well, I got the drivers here and that blew out my video entirely. I had to reinstall everything. Those drivers gave me three higher resolutions for this monitor than it is capable of!!! I did download the correct drivers according to Dell so the problem was not because I got the wrong ones. After I got everything reinstalled without the new drivers, I went to Nvidia's site and downloaded them there. Those work just fine plus the Dell drivers were never submitted to Microsoft, whereas, the drivers at Nvidia's site are approved ones and they don't give me higher resolutions than this monitor is capable of using. So don't go get Nvidia drivers at Dell...ignore any Dell tech who tells you to do that. However, while the new drivers give me some neat things I did not have before, they in no way improve the readability of text.
After I learned about Microsoft Clear Type, I mentioned this to the techs and not a one of them, including the supervisor, had ever heard of it!!! Dell certainly doesn't train its techs well anymore. Of course, I have the misfortune of being a small business customer instead of a corporate one. Dell has answered all the complaints by corporate users and now they get tech support in the U.S. But us small business and home users are left hanging in the wind with the terrible support over there in India. Dell doesn't care if it looses small business and home users over the horrible tech support because we are just a few pebbles in the bucket. Now corporate users who have threatened to move their business elsewhere because of the tech support issue ...Dell can't afford to loose them so they now enjoy far better tech support than the rest of us.
http://www.ioisland.com/cleartweak/
G_W_B
153 Posts
0
December 18th, 2003 23:00
robnalex
720 Posts
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December 19th, 2003 01:00
robnalex
720 Posts
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December 22nd, 2003 16:00
ian1937
103 Posts
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December 22nd, 2003 16:00
I'm surprised there isn't more discussion on this issue. What's more important than the configuration of the monitor! The Windows XP appearance tools are very confusing and take a lot of fiddling before you can change font sizes where you want them changed. I have read this thread and tried all the hints contained therein. I think the best way to increase font sizes in IE and other areas is to simply increase the DPI from 96 normal to 120 larger size. Right click the desk top click properties-settings-advance and change the dpi setting.
Still looking for new tips and tricks on this subject.
TuesdayChild
1 Message
0
January 4th, 2004 01:00
IE6 has a handy feature that might solve your problem, Henry.
Tools | Internet Options | Accessibility (bottom of the General tab) | check Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages
Follow the other suggestions for using the native resolution of your display. Clear Type for WinXP may help. Try 24-bit color. I have the 2000FP set to 1600x1200 24-bit color with only a VGA input from a non-DVI Matrox G400 card and it looks fine to my myopic eyes.