Aero Taskforce

System DPI Scaling "Custom DPI"

Submitted by Sarreq Teryx on June 9, 2008 to Annoyance, Bug, Usability

Problem: When using the Custom DPI dialog, 100percent is the minimum setting. in win 95 through XP, it could go below 100percent/96dpi. I can't see any GOOD or SANE reason this was removed. on my 19" 1280x1024 monitor, at 100percent/96dpi, 1 inch is actually physically 1.125 inches, and I'm sure it gets worse on larger monitors.

BUT, I do realize that on XP and below that scaling the setting below 100percent/96dpi does cause problems with certain programs where their windows are improperly set to size themselves based on inches or centimeters instead of pixels, or em or ex of the font in use. one glaring case of this would be Firefox's options dialog box. program windows and dialog boxes are NOT meant to be printable items, so they shouldn't ever need to be so many inches or cm in size, but they do need to be able to fit around their content properly.

Yes this is mostly only an issue for graphic designers, but a properly proportioned screen can improve the user experience for everyone.

(apparently, this site doesn't like me using the percent symbol, as it comes out as % instead)

Solution: restore the option to set a lower DPI than 96 (100percent), and remove the API option to set a window size based on inches or centimeters






I'd like to ask those who don't have any clue what this is, and therefore don't have any use for it to not vote it down just to improve the chances of something else being fixed over it, the point of the site is to try to get EVERYTHING with validity fixed. I'd also. like to ask for those with a valid reason for voting this down to actually comment in an explanation so I can think of ways to improve my description and solution, maybe I've just not explained it as well as I could have.

Severity: Medium

Impact: High

Status: Not fixed

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