fontsize in 7.92

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Wed, 2007-10-24 at 09:22 +0200, Christoph Höger wrote:
> Please don't misunderstand me, I did not mean "too hard to do ist for
> "normal users". I just meant that it is not comfortable to change each
> font one by one if the target is to "just get the desktop fonts smaller
> (and keep the current ratio)", not that it should not be possible to
> change each font size individually.

Ah, OK.  I apologize for speaking sharply.

But still, small/normal or small/medium/large is too limiting.  I still
want the range of point sizes (and I want them to mean real points!).  I
usually do set all my fonts to one size, but I would still advocate an
advanced setting that allows hard-core customizers to change sizes for
individual fonts if they want.

> 
> Am Dienstag, den 23.10.2007, 21:38 -0400 schrieb Matthew Saltzman:
> > On Tue, 2007-10-23 at 21:31 +0200, Christoph Hger wrote:
> > > Richi Plana schrieb:
> > > > On Tue, 2007-10-23 at 00:24 +0200, Nicolas Mailhot wrote:
> > > >   
> > > >> Le mardi 23 octobre 2007  00:01 -0400, Christoph Hoeger a crit :
> > > >>
> > > >>     
> > > >>> is that sense-full? I mean, I've bought a Thinkpad R60 with a 1440x900
> > > >>> Display to see more information on my screen simultaneously 
> > > >>>       
> > > >> If you want small fonts just lower the size in points of your fonts in
> > > >> your app preferences. Gnome font preferences use pt as unit. Till now
> > > >> the GNOME pt unit had no relation with the pt unit the rest of the world
> > > >> uses. Now it's the same, so if you want small fonts you need to actually
> > > >> configure small fonts and not change the unit meaning on your system
> > > >> (and likewise if you want big fonts).
> > > >>
> > > >> That also means BTW that when you change laptop again your text will
> > > >> stay the same size regardless of the screen resolution, so you can
> > > >> invest the time to find good settings you'll keep them a long time.
> > > >>     
> > > >
> > > > I, for one, am glad that there's a move to make font sizes be based on
> > > > length rather than point sizes.
> > > >
> > > > The selection of a default font size is still crap-shoot, at best.
> > > > Having the monitor DPI as a dependency now allows people to say "I want
> > > > fonts that are so-and-so millimeters in height", unfortunately, 1) we
> > > > still lack information like distance of the viewer from the screen and
> > > > the height of the screen relative to the viewer, and 2) we've no way to
> > > > guess what the user would want, anyway. There are a couple of
> > > > discussions on the most ergonomic distance between monitor and viewer,
> > > > but font size preference is pretty varied. The only way to find out is
> > > > to let the gnome desktop provide feedback (a'la Smolt) after the user
> > > > has customized the desktop to his/her preference. Perhaps than a norm
> > > > can be established.
> > > >
> > > > Personally, I would like to set my font size preference in some length
> > > > unit of measure so that I can bump up the resolution and not have the
> > > > fonts and icons shrink to sizes I can hardly read. It's important for me
> > > > to see a lot more information on the screen, but not to the point where
> > > > it becomes useless because they're too small that I keep having to
> > > > squint. Believe me, straining ones eyesight like that will eventually
> > > > take its toll.
> > > > --
> > > >
> > > > Richi Plana
> > > >
> > > >   
> > > I totally agree with your point.
> > > But in my case that would mean to have one choice to use "small fonts" 
> > > instead of "normal fonts". I think that choosing (and testing) every 
> > > font size until it fits your needs is a little too much work for a 
> > > normal user to have a comfortable desktop. 
> > 
> > Really?  How incompetent do we think "normal users" are?
> > 
> > Users that don't want to take the trouble and are willing to live with
> > the consequences will behave accordingly anyway.  For those of us that
> > tune our desktops to within an inch of their lives, leave us the option,
> > please?
> > 
> > > So could we provide a 
> > > "small/normal/large font" switch or even theme?
> > 
> > If this is the direction you want to go, could you at least leave the
> > full selection available as "advanced"?
> > 
> > > 
> > > christoph
> > > 
> > > 
> > -- 
> >                 Matthew Saltzman
> > 
> > Clemson University Math Sciences
> > mjs AT clemson DOT edu
> > http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs
> > 
> 
> 
-- 
                Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs