Hard to read my sceen/eye strain, suggestions?

[nrvana8775]

I have a t42, ati 9600 64mb, 15" sxga display and I find it really straining on my eyes to have the resolution at 1400x1050 but that's the native resoultion. Is there any way to increase the size of my screen other than changing the resolution? Going to 1028 does not increase the size of the text in any of my programs, which is what I am after more or less.

[davidspalding]

There's an option in the BIOS to stretch the screen ... if when you set it at 1024, the area of the desktop just gets smaller, you need to enable that BIOS setting. Reboot, and hit F1 at the IBM splash screen.

Also, you can tell windows to increase your font size. Display properties control panel, Settings, Advanced, General tab (in XP). I find I use that when I enabled ClearType font smoothing, as the fonts get a wee bit smaller.

[LtTPfan]

You can also increase the size of the text in your browser by clicking View>Text Size, and increase the size of your start menu icons by right clicking on the task bar and clicking on properties>start menu>customize.

Consider trading your SXGA machine for an XGA and put the extra bucks in your back pocket as this will place you closer to the screen. Seriously though, SXGA screens are great for young eyes running graphics intensive programs, like games; older folks like me running mostly normal apps are better off with lower resolution screens.

[larrys]

My older eyes have the same problem with my 1600x1200 15" screen.

What I did was change the DPI ( display properties, settings, advanced) to 150% of normal (144dpi) which helped a lot.

I still have to bump up the fonts in Firefox, with CTRL-MouseScrollUp/Down, but it works for me.

[davidspalding]

IE's font sizing only works with sites which use good CSS formatting; others, alas like phpBB standard templates, use "pt" sizing, and IE doesn't change 'em. Firefox, + and - keys work on most any page.

My tip above compensates for the entire OS.

Bears noting that CTRL + MOUSEWHEEL UP/MOUSEWHEEL DOWN controls font size/zoom in many MS apps. SHIFT + MOUSEWHEEL UP/MOUSEWHEEL DOWN moves forward/back in IE and Explorer (Win2000 only, so far as I've found), too.

And of course, newer Thinkpads have that "screen magnifier" (FN + SPACEBAR) feature.

[dr_st]

I still have to bump up the fonts in Firefox, with CTRL-MouseScrollUp/Down, but it works for me.

I went through Firefox's about:config and changed many of the default font sizes, so that most of the time I don't have to bump up the font sizes. Only on specific pages, or when I'm tired...

[LtTPfan]

IE's font sizing only works with sites which use good CSS formatting; others, alas like phpBB standard templates, use "pt" sizing, and IE doesn't change 'em. Firefox, + and - keys work on most any page.

My tip above compensates for the entire OS.

Forgive me if you've taken my post as a personal afront to your advice. I did not say "instead of," I said "also," as in additionally. I find the ability to quickly adjust the text size, either larger or smaller, from within my browser on many, but not all, of the pages I visit a benefit, regarless of the settings of my OS.

[davidspalding]

I wasn't affronted. The OP seemed to be discussing the entire OS, and though you were spot on with your IE suggestion, I've found that it is only 50% effective on the Web, due to the huge number of clumsily-coded sites.

about:config ... lovely. Nice to see that about:history, about:cache and other URLs from early Netscape versions have returned.

And of course, it wouldn't be Mozilla without the about:mozilla URL. Used to be, you could put in about: and names/initials of the original Mosaic Communications staff, and find pages about them on the Netscape site. I miss that personal touch....