Re: DPI, font size, and Debian

[Simon Law <sfllaw@debian.org>]

On Sun, Dec 05, 2004 at 10:12:08AM -0600, Billy Biggs wrote:
> Anders Karlsson (anders@trudheim.com):
> 
> > The best scenario would be if X + Desktop Environment picked up on the
> > actual DPI of the screen(s) and adjusted for that automatically.
> 
>   I disagree.  If I hook my laptop up to a data projector, I do not want
> all of my fonts to shrink to nothingness.

I think that the data projector would have to lie about its DPI.  It
doesn't even make sense for a data projector to tell anyone about its
DPI.  It certainly doesn't know.

>   I believe that:
>     - "Screen DPI" as a concept is really just a "scale factor" for user
>       interfaces and should almost never represent the literal meaning

Screen DPI is actually meant to mean exactly that.  If you want a scale
factor, this should be set somewhere else, since this is a different
concept.  That way, if you want all your widgets super big because you
have bad vision, even if you switch monitors, they will stay exactly the
same size.

>     - Many fonts design their hints for specific point sizes at specific
>       DPIs.  Using "99x98" DPI or "102x102" DPI, even if accurate, is
>       not productive.

Hrm...  I always thought that since fonts were hinted algorithmically,
the minor differences between those DPIs would be indistinguishable.  I
didn't know that hinting engines are that fragile.

Simon