Thinkpads Forum

I got a new Thinkpad through work. It's the T60 widescreen with the native resolution of 1680x1050.

There is no exchanging or returning this machine. It's mine for the next 3-4 years.

I love the machine except when set at native resolution, I can't comfortably read the fonts. In many programs I can adjust font and text size, but in others, it's difficult.

I have read through the various posts on this forum about resolution.

I have been playing with various combinations of display resolution, font size, plus ClearType. I can't find one combination of the three that produces reasonably clear, sharp text.

Does anyone have some good suggestions?

Stan

Which applications are still troublesome after resizing the fonts?

Vista might solve it for you as it adjusts much better to high-DPI displays than XP does.

as tom says you just have to change the DPI. You can also change the resolution to something lower but then it might look a bit fuzzy because it's non-native.

You didn't state whether you're using XP or Vista but here:

In Vista you can just right click the desktop and choose personalize then on the top left of that window you'll see "Adjust DPI" or something like that. Change it to 120 or something bigger if you are blind

In XP you go to Display Properties (right click desktop and choose properties) then go to settings, advanced and that main tab should have 2-3 DPI settings. 120 is one of them. THe Default is 96 so play with it till you find one you like.

The reason it's better to up the DPI for someone like you instead of going to a lower resolution (beside the fuzzy portion) is that you'll get more screen space when you're working in your documents and websites. With resolutions such as that you can visit some sites and not even need to scroll to see the whole page while on a lower you'd have to scroll vertical (or even horizontal on poorly designed sites) to see the whole page. If you change the DPI it makes txt bigger so you still scroll some but things still looks sharper and smoother compared to the lower resolution which will make text look more blocky.

As for browsing, if you get IE7 or Firefox, you can easily increase/decrease text size while surfing by pressing Ctrl + or Ctrl -

But its very inconsistent and has some problems as you'll see. For example, in IE you'll get horizontal scrollbars if you increase size much. And in mozilla when you increase size, not everything increases. Also some things will overwrite and cram into each other. There will be inconsistency in text size as you move from page to page.

XGA remains best for web surfing IMO, because websites are generally designed to be viewed with XGA.

I have the same screen and agree it is unusable unless some modifications are made.

liquidview is a decent app that works with XP and allows fonts to be increased in size. you can always just manually increase the DPI and change the settings in Control Panel, Display, Appearance, Advanced and increase size for each element.

Thanks, everyone.

Switching to Vista isn't an option. This is a company-maintained machine and we are still XP for the forseeable future.

I tried changing the DPI of the font but still haven't quick found the sweet spot.

I went into Display Properties > Appearance instead of Settings, and tried changing from Font = normal to Font = Large, and that seems to help, but the text still isn't quite as comfortable as on my recently retired T40 at 1024x768.

I will look at liquidview.

snsok, if you can indicate which applications are giving you the most discomfort with the font size, we might be able to give you more specific tips for adjusting those ...

snsok wrote: I got a new Thinkpad through work. It's the T60 widescreen with the native resolution of 1680x1050.
I love the machine except when set at native resolution, I can't comfortably read the fonts. In many programs I can adjust font and text size, but in others, it's difficult.

Does anyone have some good suggestions?

Stan

I have a ThinkPad with the same resolution as you. Changing font size is quite easy and it's possible to adjust things to suit your needs and get rid of eye strain.

I have a Theme that I could e-mail to you if you like. It would show you how I have my settings adjusted.

Or, just use 120 to 135 DPI as others here have suggested. Also, use Large Fonts or Extra Large Font settings. Of course, make sure Clear Type is enabled for best viewing and clarity.

In Display Properties you can adjust the 'X' and Scroll Bar size to make them larger and then they will be a larger target for your mouse cursor. This action will also enlarge the icons in your taskbar for easier selection. Set your cursor to largest size in Control Paney and use Mouse Cursor Shadow. You can also go into Accessability and enlarge the blinking Carot for better visibility.

Enlarging Message Box text font size and Menu font text size to 12 or even 14 points will work well.

I also like to change the Desktop Icon font size to 13 or 14. This also enlarges the fonts in Windows Explorer.

I use the Classic mode and get rid of any desktop wallpapers. This forces Windows to show a very simple desktop that is easier for the eye and the brain to process and you will not use up as much energy just trying to navigate around.

Let me know if you want my Theme. It may not work -perfectly- on your machine, but it will not harm anywhing. Just save your existing theme so you can switch back for forth.

Editorially speaking, Microsoft does the user a big dis-service by not teling us more clearly how to adjust our desktops for ease of use. That translates into stress for the computer user.

Also, remember to slow down your mouse double click to avoid strain on the tendons and muscles that you use when left-clicking.

---and don't forget good 'ol Fn+F3 to enlarge things on the screen, especially some of the web sites with teeny tiny text. That magnifier can be adjusted to suit, you know.

The application which causes me discomfort & grief in (W)SXGA+ is the web browser (IE6, IE7 and Firefox2). Even with changes like those mentioned above, I find that surfing with SXGA+ is painful and much inferior to XGA.

Problems with browsing in SXGA+ include, but are not limited to:
- inconsistent text size from page-to-page and site-to-site
- when increasing text size (Ctrl+), some page elements collide/overlap (firefox), or you get an awkward horizontal scrollbar (IE7) as page elements expand horizontally off the screen
- disproportion within a page (some elements expand large while others are small). For example, typing with large font into a message box that remains small means you see less of the message you're typing.

Most ppl here are high-resolution fans, but I tend to recommend XGA to friends/relatives who want a laptop mostly for browsing and e-mail and Word (which describes the majority of average users). Word is great in hi-res, but unless I'm missing something, you're doing someone who mostly surfs a disservice by suggesting anything except (W)XGA.

SkiBunny wrote:The application which causes me discomfort & grief in (W)SXGA+ is the web browser (IE6, IE7 and Firefox2). Even with changes like those mentioned above, I find that surfing with SXGA+ is painful and much inferior to XGA.

Well Said!

I could not agree more. While I'm a big fan of high res displays for the work I do, I never suggest anything other than XGA for the average casual user that simply want to handle email, office and web browsing.

My T60p at 1600x1200 is fine for the 3D design work, and other high end software packages I use along with the resource intensive requirements that demand a workstation class machine like the T60p. However that said, I have a T60 with XGA specifically for those times when I'm doing web work only as the difference is huge. Even thought I have 20/20 vision, I'm so much more comfortable for long periods of time working with an XGA display for web site design.

Tomh009,

I use many different apps at work including Office, several proprietary programs, IE, 2 medical record programs, and a host of others. One of the medical records programs is set up as a network app and the display isn't user-configurable from within the app.

mgo,

Yes, I would like to try your theme.

I appreciate everyone's help.