Cany anybody read the 1600 x 1200 display on the T42P

[sktn77a]

My son wants me to boost IBM stock even more by getting him T42p during the NC sales tax holiday this weekend. My question is: is the 1600 x 1200 resolution on the T42p 15" LCD readable (it seems like it would be just too tiny for me)?

Help

[Qapf]

It certinaly is readable, son is simply going to have to get used to it. I thought when ordering that 1400x1050 was way the hell too small, but in reality it fits the laptop quite well. Turning Cleartype on was the only requirment I needed for everything to be purdy.

[mtbiac]

how do you turn Cleartype on? any other tricks you'd care to share?

thanks

[JaneL]

In WindowsXP:

Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Display

Choose the Appearance tab.

Click on the Effects button.

Check "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts".

Choose Clear Type from the resulting drop-down.

Press OK.

Press OK.

[Qapf]

what he said. Hehe

Once your son gets it, tries to load Doom 3, and sees the performence. Send him here for all the Doom 3 Threads

[Kenn]

I used to run 16x12 on my 19" CRT. It took about 2 days to get used to the resolution on the 15" LCD, but since it's much more crisp it's actually easier to read as well. Now I wish the resolution was even higher.

[Hangfire]

In WindowsXP:
Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Display
Choose the Appearance tab.
Click on the Effects button.
Check "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts".
Choose Clear Type from the resulting drop-down.
Press OK.
Press OK.

nonny,

I tried this but I cannot tell any difference. What is this cleartype adjustment supposed to do?

Thanks...

[Kenn]

Cleartype is a clever subpixel antialiasing (smoothing) scheme for text.

If you turn it off and look at your icon text (such as "My Computer,") you can see the jaggy stairsteps of the individual pixels that make up each letter. If you turn on cleartype, windows takes advantage of a trick having to do with the nature of LCD displays to smooth out the text and make diagonal lines and curves in text look more natural. It is usually subtle, but is very noticeable for smaller type, such as 10-point Times Roman and especially in italicized print.

If you still can't see it, check out: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cle ... uner/1.htm (make sure you're using IE)

It'll let you turn Cleartype on and off in realtime, and even let you choose different implementations of it for XP. Using this tool should let you see the difference it makes much more "clearly."

[edelrc]

For sure I don't like the cleartype on my A20p 15" 1400x1050 screen. All text looks less defined (blurier) and whites and blacks just appear more into the grey spectrum. It must be a thing of tastes too, but i prefer definition and clarity (even when that allows you see some pixelation)versus smothings and bluryness.

I will check it that is the same on the T42p Flexview, but it must no be much different...

[Kenn]

I feel exactly the same way with certain resolutions. However, 16x12 on a 15" is high enough for me where the computer is essentially resolution-independent, and the pixels are small enough where Cleartype adds clarity without subtracting contrasty edges. If you check out the Microsoft page above, you'll see that there are actually two kinds of LCD implementations (RGB, BGR), and the wrong one will actually make text look worse - I don't know if LCD hardware have flags which denote which implementation they use, but you might want to make sure Windows is selecting the right format. Also, they have a few Cleartype variations for you to choose from - from light to bold - one of which may look better to you.

But in the end, I'm 100% with you that crisp, clear text beats fuzzy, low-contrast text any day of the week.

[Daniel]

I've never seen that ClearType link and tool before. Thank you.

[cjsuh]

Very cool link. Thanks!

[edelrc]

The difference is not so visible, but still the text on the 15" Flexview 1600x1200 screen still looks better to me without the ClearType. To have that expensive screen to see latter on blury text is a no-no for me.

As Kenn said; "100% [] that crisp, clear text beats fuzzy, low-contrast text any day of the week." but tastes could vary here I guess... even if I do not know why!

(Ah, to answer the original question, yes I find that text is clear and visible on 1600x1200)

[tyipengr]

Totally off subject but I have been questioning myself about this - How does the sales tax holiday work on online purchases on multi-state websites like IBM.com? Do you just get the tax refunded to you by the state or does IBM.com just not charge you tax?

[Kenn]

Totally off subject but I have been questioning myself about this - How does the sales tax holiday work on online purchases on multi-state websites like IBM.com? Do you just get the tax refunded to you by the state or does IBM.com just not charge you tax?

Wow, that was TOTALLY off-topic Why not post the question as a new thread? I'm actually very interested in seeing how this works as well.

[XCoalMiner]

In WindowsXP:

Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Display

Choose the Appearance tab.

Click on the Effects button.

Check "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts".

Choose Clear Type from the resulting drop-down.

Press OK.

Press OK.

There seems to be a much greater level of control via the ActiveX control from the MS website than via Control Panel > Display props. Does anyone know why that is.

[sktn77a]

Re: Totally off topic - IBM charge you the sales tax at the time of purchase. You fax them the E599-H exemption certificate (that's the form number for NC) and they credit you back in about 3 months (at least, that's how it worked for me last year).