# Screen resolution on computers



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I'm bringing this up because of some questions on another thread, and funny enough, it's been a subject that has misunderstood often.

On my web site, for years, there has been this block of text: "

*Attention:* This site normally uses images 800 pixels wide. *You will enjoy the site the most at 1280 pixels wide resolution*.  You may need to turn off any browser "bookmarks" or "favorites" to the left of the actual browser "area" so you can use the full resolution of your display. If you use a very low screen resolution, then the text may go off into the margin on the right. *Click here for detailed stats on this site, including the monitor resolution used by visitors.*
"

Actually, up until recently, it actually referenced the name of a person here who had trouble reading my site. I removed his name recently, but you all know him. After a number of exchanges, it turns out he was trying to view my site in 800 x 600 because of his poor vision. When I suggested he get a larger monitor and run it in 1280 pixels wide, he could not comprehend why that would help. Now, from a recent thread, I see that there still exists some basic misunderstandings on how to solve the problem.



Here's one of the problems.

Everyone THINKS they want the "new high resolution display" because it sounds better. But people with poor eyesight cannot read small print on a display. What you need is for the print to be larger. How to solve the problem?


Solution 1: Just get a larger display, like 24 inches across or even more AND run it in the SAME resolution as your 17" monitor. This way the text will be larger.

Solution 2: Run in lower resolution, as this person did, like 800 x 600... 


But there are problems with each method.

First, if you are running in 800 x 600, many web sites will "sense" your lower resolution and try to compensate, in my case, my site cannot scale the dynamic components that have to fit on the screen... so text spilled over past a number of colored borders, making it hard to read. Also, you have to scroll horizontally all the time to read stuff. This is a real pain.


With the second method, you can usually be more successful depending on the monitor and video card you have. When you buy a modern wide screen monitor, it will normally be 1920 x 1080 pixels... so right off the person with poor eyesight won't be helped at all, because the increase in screen size is offset by the increase in screen resolution.
'
The solution here is to run you nice new monitor in a lower resolution. The problem here is that not all monitors will scale nicely to a lower resolution. These monitors have small square "lights" that produce the picture, called pixels. There are actually 1,920 of them across the screen. What happens when you want to scale to a different resolution that is not exactly half? You get fuzzy pictures as the system cannot display 1/2 or 3/4 of a pixel... 


Make it worse by trying to make a "variable zoom" to any arbitrary size.

So, there's really no perfect answer for someone that really wants 800 x 600 resolution today. The hardware is just not designed any more to go to such a low resolution.

This is why if you go into a store and ask someone for a high resolution display, so you can scale it down, they don't get it. This is because it just does not work well. The best thing to do is either consign yourself to scrolling all the time, or get a 27" or greater display and put it right in your face (meaning really close up).

I'm farsighted and run all 1920 x 1080 or HIGHER, but I have to wear glasses to see close up. 

Just part of getting old I guess.

Hope this helps explain some of the "resolution issues" that people may have on my site and some fundamental misunderstandings on why "higher resolution" may not help certain people at all.

Regards, Greg


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## JEFF RUNGE (Jan 2, 2008)

OR if you are using a mac, you just hold the command key down and hit the + a few times and you now have larger text, no need to scroll side to side. it just works.


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## Ralph Berg (Jun 2, 2009)

Or you can run the native resolution for the monitor, and set your browser to enlarge the text. In IE, it's on the "Tools" menu. I set the zoom to 115%. I can still use the native resolution for my 23" monitor. 
The text is larger, yet all web pages, so far, still fit the monitor without scrolling. 
Ralph


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

As a side note, how many people are using dual monitor set ups? I started using a dual monitor set up last fall when I was transcribing 19th Century letters (the original scanned letter on one screen, word doc on other), and now I can't go back to 1 screen for the life of me! Two monitors drives my wife crazy though. 
I've got 1600x900 on one monitor and 1280 x 1024 on the other one.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Jeff and Ralph, one of the points (and it's in my post) is that zooming in does not always provide something more readable due to scaling, and sometimes even a limitation in the video card. Because this is a digital system, you cannot always get "exact" scaling. 

All of us can hit control plus on our browsers, and most of the better softwares have a zoom function. 

Even if you are using native resolution, you can still have scaling issues that do not make every zoom level more readable. 

Craig, I run dual monitors at home, 24" 1920 x 1200 plus the laptop screen which is 1920 x 1080. 

At work, I have 4 monitors on the computer, two 24" 1920 x 1200, and a 23" 1920 x 1080 and the laptop 1920 x 1080... have been using multiple monitors for the last 10 years or so. 

Greg


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## rdamurphy (Jan 3, 2008)

"so text spilled over past a number of colored borders, making..." 

It does that on my screen also at 1600x900... 

Also, no offense, I absolutely love your site, and use it often, but the lighter colored print is difficult to read. I usually have to highlight text to read it clearly. 

Robert


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## JEFF RUNGE (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg, I have no idea why it works, but on my iMac as the font is increased the it remains sharp and the text is wrapped and kept within the original space. (Screen resolution is set at 1920 x 1080 on a 21" screen.) On rare occasions I have seen posts on MLS that required side to side scrolling. I have alway wondered why that happens? I suspect the poster has settings or software causing this?


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Posted By JEFF RUNGE on 08 Apr 2012 07:19 AM 
On rare occasions I have seen posts on MLS that required side to side scrolling. I have alway wondered why that happens? I suspect the poster has settings or software causing this? 
That happens on MLS when someone posts a picture that is too large to fit inside the browser window.
I have been guilty of that myself - I grab a picture to illustrate a point and if it's too large, I don't have the time to reduce it in size and post it again, so I just leave it.
But then the MLS software widens the window to accomodate that one picture, the window for that whole thread becomes wider and you end up with a horizontal scroll bar.


The MLS software could easily be set up to prevent that, but the "solution" as with many of the MLS software "quirks" is to require a work-around by the user - telling the user not to post a picture larger than a certain size.

Knut


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

The MLS software could easily be set up to prevent that, but the "solution" as with many of the MLS software "quirks" is to require a work-around by the user - telling the user not to post a picture larger than a certain size.The purpose behind the image size limitation rule started back in the days when much of the membership was still on dialup connections and file size was a real concern. Within certain limits that's still the main reason for it. While everyone is, for the most part, now on broadband, there can still come a point when many photos are posted in a thread, and if the combined file size of those photos is huge, download times and server response times are negatively affected (my own Builder's Log Pt 1 is an example of this, and I kept within the existing rules). 

Side to side scrolling is an additional concern, and everyone knows what a pain that can be. Limiting image size helps with both these issues. 

As for the software being set up to avoid this, there is the ability in the "Insert Image" tool available to 1st Class members to constrain the display size of an image (in pixels x pixels) which, interestingly enough, is probably the tool one uses to "grab a picture to illustrate a point" since this is where one inserts the URL of said picture. Unfortunately, that tool doesn't address the file size of said picture. 

Don't get me wrong... I'm not defending the current forum software, nor am I saying it couldn't be vastly better - merely pointing out the incompleteness of your statement.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

The tools available still require the poster to "do something" when composing a posting. There are other fora that accept the image "as is" and if it is too large, it is automatically shrunk to acceptable limits and a link is appended below it that reads; "This image has been reduced in size, click here to view the full sized image." The reader can then decide if the image is of enough interest to download the full sized version.

Silly things sometimes happen in some of the fora... the software sets the limit to 799 and the user uploads an image at 800, so the software shrinks it to 799 and appends the link. The reader then sees that they can get a higher resolution image and clicks the link only to see an image that is only 1 pixel larger.

Of course, that is not as silly as I have seen on e-bay where there is a link to "Enlarge image" that then presents a SMALLER version of the same image!


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Semper - I've yet to see software that avoids all problems when the computer thinks it's smarter than the human. hehehe My Droid X spell checker is a case in point. I can't tell you how many times I've sent a text only to realize immediately after that the damn spell checker substituted a word and completely changed my meaning. 

Like I said, I'm not defending the current forum software. I don't much like it either. But I've been here a long time and I know the history behind some of the rules and decisions that others don't, so I sometimes clarify them. Most of them originally had a sound basis, and imho, most of them still do. We report, you decide.


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## jbwilcox (Jan 2, 2008)

If I want larger print I just change it on the lower right of my screen to 125% or larger.

John


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## gtrainman (Jan 5, 2008)

If I want larger print I just change it on the lower right of my screen to 125% or larger. 

SAME HERE. 

I'm using IE9 on a Win 7 64 bit Professional machine.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Robert, I changed my screen to 1600 x 900 and I don't ever see text spill past the borders... the pictures can exceed the borders... 

Can you tell me what page this is on? Perhaps it's one of the rare pages that has a picture exceeding 800 pixels wide. 

I hate the grey text also, plus that the recent additions text overlaps the pictures. Had a major update to the web site software, and my old templates do not work the way I want. Good thing is you can load hundreds of different templates easily, just have been too busy to experiment to find a better one.

The gray text, the recent additions, and the menu level indent are the top 3 things I will fix.

Greg Posted By rdamurphy on 08 Apr 2012 12:00 AM 
"so text spilled over past a number of colored borders, making..." 

It does that on my screen also at 1600x900... 

Also, no offense, I absolutely love your site, and use it often, but the lighter colored print is difficult to read. I usually have to highlight text to read it clearly. 

Robert


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Posted By bnsfconductor on 07 Apr 2012 07:45 PM 
...Two monitors drives my wife crazy though. 




Is that a "bug" or a "feature"?


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## rdamurphy (Jan 3, 2008)

Yes, I guess I did mean that they spilled over the pictures, not the borders. 

Again, I love your site, and I read it extensively before I decided to go with 1:20.3 and which models to buy. Also used it to learn about sound cards and DCC. I don't agree with everything you've written, but I respect your opinions. 

Thanks for your hard work. 

Robert


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Speaking of Screen Resolution

My Screen Resolution is set for Max.

I have two pieces of Software that will not load because it thinks my Screen resolution is somewhere around 600 or 700 

I know how to change the resolution on my computer I just wish I could change the software before I loaded it. 


JJ


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By Ray Dunakin on 08 Apr 2012 07:42 PM 
Posted By bnsfconductor on 07 Apr 2012 07:45 PM 
...Two monitors drives my wife crazy though. 




Is that a "bug" or a "feature"? 



Well I normally turn off the extra monitor when I'm done using it, but sometimes I forget to move what ever I was working on back over to the main monitor...So my wife goes to use the computer and opens a program but it 'doesn't' open. So she tries to open it again, and again, until she finally realizes that it might be on the other screen.. LOL The other quirky thing I have set up that drives her crazy is I have extended monitor to the left of the main one, but I have it set up as being on the right. So you have to scroll with the mouse to the right, to see it on the screen to the left. I could change it, but that would be way to easy! lol 

Craig


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

OH,... come on Craig, change it over Man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Dirk


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

then turn one 

up- 

side down!!!!!!!


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks for the compliment Robert, and comments are always welcome, not only differing opinions, but errors always creep in. You can email me with changes/comments/etc. Text to this effect is on my main page. 

Craig, I have a computer at work with 8 screens, and when something gets messed up, it's **** finding the mouse again when windows 7 has rearranged the screens! 

Greg


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