Re: determine correct dpi settings for X

[Noah Dain <noahdain@gmail.com>]

On 1/3/06, LeVA <leva@az.isten.hu> wrote:
> 2006. január 3. 13:17,
> Gonzalo HIGUERA DÍAZ <gonhidi@gmail.com>
> -> debian-user@lists.debian.org,:
> > 2006-01-03 13:05 +0100, LeVA <leva@az.isten.hu>:
> > Measure the monitor's height and width in inches and manually
> > calculate the horizontal and vertical dots per inch for your preferred
> > resolution, or measure it in centimetres and let the Xorg server do it
> > for you. A partial quote from "/usr/share/doc/x11-common/FAQ.gz":
> >
> > """
> > How do I set the DPI (dots-per-inch) value used by the X server?
> >
> >    Two ways to get an accurate DPI value to your application are:
> >     1. pass the -dpi option to the X server (this also works for many
> >        non-XFree86/Xorg X servers); or
> >     2. let the XFree86/Xorg X server calculate the DPI value based on the
> >        DisplaySize parameter in its configuration file, XF86Config-4 or
> >        xorg.conf. See the XF86Config-4(5x) or xorg.conf(5x) manual page
> >        for details.
> >
> >    The first method is recommended if you already know the DPI value of
> >    your monitor and wish to always run it at the same resolution; the
> >    second method is the more flexible way, but only available for the
> >    XFree86 and Xorg X servers.
> >
> >    [...]
> Cool, thanks!
>
> Daniel
>
> --
> LeVA
>

for the impatient add this line to the XF86Config/xorg.conf monitor section:

   DisplaySize xxx yyy

where xxx and yyy are width and height of the viewable area in millimeters.

you can get dpi (and more) info via xdpyinfo, ie: $ xdpyinfo|less


--
Noah Dain
"Single failures can occur for a variety of reasons that have nothing
to do with a hardware defect, such as cosmic radiation ..." - IBM
Thinkpad R40 maintenance manual, page 25