Thinkpads Forum

I have a SXGA+ (1400x1050). I am more comfortable when working with my old XGA (1024x768).
Altough I know that I can just change the resolution, all the graphics displayed when I changed to 1024x768 is not as clear as those native LCD XGA.

Is there anyway to make my SXGA+ display to work in 1024x768 mode with much clearer and sharper graphics as it is in XGA LCD?

lautamas wrote:Is there anyway to make my SXGA+ display to work in 1024x768 mode with much clearer and sharper graphics as it is in XGA LCD?

Nope, unfortunately.

I have the OP's same problem.

Are there any third party software that will solve it?

I think the text is too small for me in high resolution. If I increase the font size, some webpages do not display very well.

The number of pixels are fixed on an LCD display (native resolution). any other resolution is achieved by simulation.
This is different with CRT monitors and they can change resolutions without losing sharpness (within the monitor's/graphic card's limits)

The only solution would be to swap your LCD with an XGA one.
The other would be to use an external monitor of choice.

There are people who prefer the higher resolution (like me) I would post up in the market place and see if you could swap with another member.

You can easily set it up to not scale the resolution on the whole cd, so XGA will be showed and the rest of the screen is just black... If that is what you're after?

I got this from another forum:

There are two ways of increasing the font size on a Windows machine (or any machine
for that matter) - the good way and the bad way. What you just described is the bad
way - increasing font sizes. To do that, you need to go into Display Properties,
then the Apperance tab, and adjust it in there. This only makes (certain) fonts bigger.

The proper way of doing it is to go into Display Properties, then Advanced, and select
the General tab. You can bump up the font DPI there. This will increase the resolution
(as well as the size) of your fonts globally. This will only only make all the fonts
bigger, but they'll also look better.

I don't have an LCD screen to test that on, but, in principle, you should be able to stay at full, SXGA+ resolution, and set the font PPI to the true screen PPI and get text that is scaled properly. I'm curious - did the system originally come with the correct PPI setting, or with some arbitrary default, like 96 PPI?

Was your main problem with graphics/icons, or with text, at native resolution?

BTW, you didn't state whether you have a 15" SXGA+ screen (117 PPI) or a 14.1" screen (124 PPI).

Another thing you can do which will solve part of the problem is to use Firefox which allows font sizes for web pages to be adjusted very easily and does a better job of it than IE (at least the last time I tried in IE). While it may mess up the way things line up slightly on some web pages, most are OK, and when one encounters a page that doesn't display well enough with enlarged fonts, just hit ctrl - or hold the cntrl key while scrolling to adjust the font size till things look ok.

For me, the occasional minor inconveniences caused by too small fonts on the 14 (4:3) SXGA+ is more than made up by the increased real esate and the increased sharpness and detail.

[quote=The proper way of doing it is to go into Display Properties, then Advanced, and select
the General tab. You can bump up the font DPI there. This will increase the resolution
(as well as the size) of your fonts globally. This will only only make all the fonts
bigger, but they'll also look better.
[/quote]

GREAT!! This looks better on my screen. thank you very much. Altough that hasnt clearly solved the problem, I think it will do it at the moment.

I believe Vista handles text scaling much better than XP.

A small portion of applications do not work well with increased DPI in Windows XP. Text gets cut off etc.

sugo wrote:I believe Vista handles text scaling much better than XP.

I compared Vista RC2 with XP Pro. Vista is noticeably better, though not much better.

You can also get an external 1024x768 display and use it as your primary device while at your desk.

RonS wrote:You can also get an external 1024x768 display and use it as your primary device while at your desk.

You'll be hard pressed finding a 1024x768 LCD, though. A 17" CRT is possible.

dr_st wrote:You'll be hard pressed finding a 1024x768 LCD, though.

Most external 15" LCD monitors are 1024x768.

One could also order an XGA screen and replace the SXGA+ screen with it

Or download a livecd of ubuntu and see how it handles the font scaling out of the box. I always turn it back down the 96dpi but I know it'll detect the dpi on your display and adjust font sizes accordingly. It looked very clear and nice with the DPI set properly but I'm not about to give up the screen real estate for that

dr_st wrote:

RonS wrote:You can also get an external 1024x768 display and use it as your primary device while at your desk.

You'll be hard pressed finding a 1024x768 LCD, though. A 17" CRT is possible.

Here are 18 of them at NewEgg alone.
http://tinyurl.com/2qevnq

You can even get a 1024 x 768 LCD TV/Monitor combo. I have a 15" one. I can watch TV with the built-in tuner or via cable or satelite. I can connect my T42 to it with a male to male VGA cable. It also has an S-Video input, component input (RBG), and IIRC a composite input. This was a cheap model that only cost about $130 at Circuit City. There are better ones for around $200.

My point is, if you are going to spend the money on a XGA LCD monitor, for not much more you can get TV built in.

RonS wrote:

dr_st wrote:You'll be hard pressed finding a 1024x768 LCD, though. A 17" CRT is possible.

Here are 18 of them at NewEgg alone.
http://tinyurl.com/2qevnq

No kidding! I thought 15" LCDs were extinct. Guess they're coming back...

dr_st wrote:No kidding! I thought 15" LCDs were extinct. Guess they're coming back...

I still have an old one sitting dust at home ...