Thinkpads Forum

My T60 came in yesterday (3 weeks early), but I was out of
town so it was delivered to the rental office where I live. I
picked it up today and have just set it up now. Here are my
initial impressions mainly comparing it with my aging T20.
It's a 200768U.

- Build quality is great. I think it's sturdier than the T20,
but I guess only time will tell.

- The machine feels a bit lighter than my T20, a pleasant surprise.

- The keyboard has good feel/feedback, but it is a bit different
than the T20. The T60 has a bit more of a hollow clicking sound
while the T20 was softer.

- Initial setup was a snap. There was a "get started" pamphlet.
All I had to do was plug in the battery, connect to power, and
power up. It walked me through the setup and I was able to
start using the machine right away. I was expecting several
reboots like I had to do when installing my T20 (which came
with Win 2K).

- The lettering on the keyboard is slightly bigger and brighter
than on my T20.

- I skipped the setup of the security chip (because I figured
it would want passwords) and the fingerprint reader. I plan
to try those out later.

- I have setup the display for 1024x768 even though it can
do 1400x1050. Even 1280x1024 feels too small. If anyone
has suggestions on how to up the resolution but maintain
reasonably large font (around the size when it is 1024x768)
please let me know.

So far so good

Anoop

I am not sure why everyone ties in font size with resolution. Moving along though.

Your screen diagonal, from the tabook, is 14.1". That's a width of 4/5*14.1" = 11.28", from baby geometry. The number of pixels that correspond to this width, in your highest resolution, is 1400. So your DPI, the number of physical dots per inch on your LCD, is 1400/11.28 ~= 124.

(Check the math, I'm handwaving.)

Anyway, assuming you're using windows, right click the desktop->settings->advanced->general. Change the DPI slider to match up to what it really is, 124. (It defaults to something generic, like 96; which is why I imagine people keep complaining about small fonts at higher resolutions.)

Reboot and watch as all your fonts render at their original sizes.

pundit wrote:
[..]

Reboot and watch as all your fonts render at their original sizes.

Wow! Thanks for this tip. It worked really well. Only thing
I don't like now is the thickness of the letters. They're on
the fine side. Maybe I will increase the DPI even further and
see what that does.

Thanks again.
Anoop

ghanwani wrote:Wow! Thanks for this tip. It worked really well. Only thing
I don't like now is the thickness of the letters. They're on
the fine side. Maybe I will increase the DPI even further and
see what that does.

Try not to do that. There is only one "correct" DPI for a screen and resolution. It is not supposed to be something arbitrary you set at a whim based on what font size/thickness works for you.

You could, instead, try turning on "ClearType", Microsoft's font anti-aliasing technique that does add some thickness to the letters.

Right click your desktop->appearance->effects->"use the following to...fonts"->clear type.

ghanwani wrote:Maybe I will increase the DPI even further and
see what that does.

I tried this but it didn't do much. Then I remembered that a friend
had told me about cleartype fonts. I turned that on using
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cle ... Step1.aspx
and that did it!

Anoop

ghanwani wrote: I turned that on using
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cle ... Step1.aspx
and that did it!

Beat you to it!

pundit wrote: Try not to do that. There is only one "correct" DPI for a screen and resolution. It is not supposed to be something arbitrary you set at a whim based on what font size/thickness works for you.

Thanks for the advice about DPI. I was at 130 DPI and set it back
down to 125 DPI. That seems to work OK too along with the cleartype.
It's a bit smaller, but not uncomfortable.

Anoop

another invaluable utility for increasing the size of on-screen fonts is Liquid View. it is a far more elegant solution than just changing the DPI:

http://personalcomputing.portrait.com/u ... rview.html

Just ordered my t60 2007-68u.

Waiting for more feedback on the T60, this is my first thinkpad and I'm sure I cannot go wrong with it. upgrading from a dell D610.....

To pundit,

Please give me the correct DPI for my 15" 1600x1200

I did the math and just want to see if I'm correct.

Thanks,
Archer 6 (obsessive about the details)

archer6 wrote:Please give me the correct DPI for my 15" 1600x1200

I did the math and just want to see if I'm correct.

15" diagonal is a 12"x9" screen. So your DPI is 1600/12" ~=133.33.
(Or 1200/9" if you prefer).

Thanks Pundit !

I got the same result that you did, just needed a double check. Your posts here have been very useful.

Archer6

archer6 - this is a very good page for computer screen information:

http://www.qg.fi/screeninformation.html

Thanks Hoya !

Speaking of screens, anyone know some good color calibration software? I knew of some stuff on the Mac, but am unfamiliar with Windows counterparts.

Thanks.

Hi Sottozero,

Try this link, I use this and it works very well for me.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/usin ... ntrol.mspx

Archer6

Thank you, pundit and others! My 14.1" screen was originally a disappointment out of the box. A few color correction tweaks and ClearType tuning have improved things tremendously.

I tried setting to 124, but some of the icons (like those in the quick launch area) then looked ridiculously bad. Is there any way around this?

baehrlich wrote:I tried setting to 124, but some of the icons (like those in the quick launch area) then looked ridiculously bad. Is there any way around this?

Not that I know of in windows.

In addition to changing your DPI there is a another thing that makes Internet Explorer work better on a high resolution monitor. Microsoft recommends this for hi-res laptops especially.

Add UseHR to the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
UseHR= dword:00000001

It is described further in this Microsoft KB article.

wpwood3 wrote:In addition to changing your DPI there is a another thing that makes Internet Explorer work better on a high resolution monitor. Microsoft recommends this for hi-res laptops especially.

Add UseHR to the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
UseHR= dword:00000001

It is described further in this Microsoft KB article.

Is there something similar for Firefox? The fonts in Firefox are
too small for my liking and I can't figure out a way to increase
the font size permanently.

Anoop

baehrlich wrote:I tried setting to 124, but some of the icons (like those in the quick launch area) then looked ridiculously bad. Is there any way around this?

hey baehrlich you have an XGA screen not an SXGA screen
so you shoulkd set your dpi to 1024/11.38= 90

not 124

anybody know the dpi of 15" UXGA off hand? 125 or so?

EDIT: OK I should try reading the ENTIRE thread B4 I post...yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry everyone. 133.333333333333333333333333333333.

Love this forum.

Regarding setting the DPI, at the screen where you set the custom DPI, there's a ruler that you drag around. You're supposed to hold up a real ruler to line up with the on-screen ruler, there's no need to do any calculation...

Good point about the ruler. I was wondering about that. (Apparently I didn't think very deeply.)

I was fiddling with different DPIs, though, on my 14.1" 1400x1050 and it really seemed to work well at pretty much any setting. I mean, you lose the effect of it corresponding to actual lengths. But other than that I don't understand what's wrong with setting it to whatever size you like the looks of.

donking! wrote:I mean, you lose the effect of it corresponding to actual lengths. But other than that I don't understand what's wrong with setting it to whatever size you like the looks of.

Which is a pretty serious deal if you're trying to be super-objective about things. Some people *cough* like to see a PDF or whatever at its original size on screen, and want it to be exactly the same on paper.

That cleartype utility is amazing! I can't believe that isn't part of XP standard. Letters look so much better.

Clear type is very nice, looks like vista has it enabled by default.

you think your T60 is sturdier than your T20? i have a T22 and i believe the complete opposite. Press down on the panel where your wrist would lie and then press down on your T2X. My T22 feels more solid. granted IBM/Lenovo had decided to keep the memory underneath that panel now and that's why it's thinner, i just don't agree with it. but they're the engineers, no me. Also, I'm left handed and typically pick up my laptop by the corner where the PCMCIA slots are located with one hand. I DO NOT feel comfortable doing this w/ my T60, but w/ my T22, i feel just fine. other than that, i love my T60, wish it did have S-video or dvi out though, probably will come out in a T61 or something.

kaotic504 wrote:you think your T60 is sturdier than your T20? ...

Actually, after a couple of weeks of use, I take that back a little. I think
the build quality of the T20 is better in some parts.
I like the T20 keyboard better and the flexing of the case is far less.
Also, the edges on the T20 are super smooth...no rough edges like
the T60. However, the screen and the hinges on the T60 feel more
solid.

The T60 is still a nice machine but the rough edges really bother me.
I have a week or so to decide whether to keep it. I didn't think
there would be something about it that would bother me so much.
It's weird that none of the reviews pointed out the issue with
the rough edges.

But if I return this, I don't know what else to get. I can't imagine
owning a laptop of any other brand. They just seem far inferior.
I don't want to go the Apple route because I'd much rather stick
with Windows. And my aging T20 is starting to have problems
- cracked case, loose connection of power supply so battery
doesn't charge even though it's plugged in - so I desperately
need something to replace it with. I might have to learn to live
with the rough edges and the not-as-good-as-my-T20
keyboard.

Anoop