Settng DPI on gdm and Sessions

[Christopher A. Williams]

On Tue, 2009-05-19 at 21:38 +0200, Kevin Kofler wrote:
> Christopher A. Williams wrote:
> > On one system I have, F11 gdm was automatically set to 120DPI, which
> > looked absolutely hideous at 1440X900 resolution. On another system, it
> > set itself automatically to 94DPI, which looked better, but not ideal.
> > I'd really like the default on both to be 96DPI (or perhaps 100DPI).
> 
> It defaults to the actual correct DPI value for your screen (monitor),
> unless your screen is broken and reports a nonsense DPI.

...Umm, no.

My TP T400 laptop defaulted to 120DPI, and my desktop at home with a
GeForce Series nVidia chipset and a 24" Acer LCD panel defaulted to
94DPI.

Neither one of these was "optimal". At 120DPI (1440x900 native
resolution), the T400 display looks absolutely crummy. Changing it to
96DPI made it crystal clear and sharp. Doing the same on my LCD panel on
my desktop had exactly the same effect, albeit less so since it was
pretty close already.

In every case where I have had the opportunity to load F10 and F11 (many
different systems / hardware combinations), I have yet to see a
"correct", as you put it, DPI set up as a default. It's not possible
that all of those systems' displays were, again as you put it, broken.
In fact, none of them were.

..and what about projector displays where there actually is no specific
screen size? By the standard you give, all of them are "broken" by
definition since you can't optimize DPI based on the screen size. What
about laptops that are routinely connected to projectors for
presentations, while simultaneously using the local display?

Regardless of all of that, there should always be a way to tell X what
DPI you want anyway. Who said the manufacturer's "correct" setting is
the best for you, and that's assuming they use a standard way of
specifying that? Clearly different manufacturers do this differently. As
such there is no standard per se. Even if there was, you should be able
to modify this to taste with a reasonable level of safety.

Cheers,

Chris

-- 
======================
"Only two things are infinite,
the universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not sure about the former."

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