Re: dpi again

[Bastian Venthur <expires-2006@venthur.de>]

Siward de Groot wrote:

> On Monday 01 August 2005 13:10, Bastian Venthur wrote:
> | Hello List,
> <snip>
>  I'd like to suggest something like: If you run dpkg-reconfigure
> | xserver-xorg the wizard could ask for the screensize of your monitor
> | (15'', 17'', ...) and your desired default resolution (here I mean with
> | resolution: 1280x1024pixels). Now the wizard could calculate the correct
> | dpi-setting and change all configs as nessessary.
> 
> Hi Bastian,
>   your suggestion unfortunately doesn't work :
> dpi is amount of dots your monitor has per inch,
>   and is not really related to preferred videomode,
>   but instead relates to highest number of pixels
>     monitor would be capable of displaying correctlly
>     (if videocard could produce it and monitor settings were optimal,
>       and monitor would be capable of completely linear display).
> Furthermore, your problem (suboptimal fontsize) is caused by
>   applications that specify fontsize in points instead of in pixels
>   (pixels would be best unit to specify size of displayfonts in, imo).
> So only way to get this fixed is to file a bug against packages that
>   give you fonts of suboptimal sizes (probably kde in your case).
> This is also most natural thing to do,
>   as it are kde programs whose behaviour you dislike,
>   and if kde maintainers feel it is really an X problem, they can reassign
>   it.

Ok let me try to explain it again,

everytime I install a fresh debian on some box (i usally use kde/kdm) my
fonts are messed up. This is the main problem. Ok I know that this might
not be the case for *every* single user out there, but according to
debian.user.german this seems to happen quite often.

Ok most of us know how to fix this problem and as far as I know the best
solution is to manually include a "DisplaySize xxx yyy" line in your
monitor-stanza in xorg.conf.

But here are already two problems:
1) I have to do it by hand(!)
2) There is also a second way to fix the dpi by editing some other file and
some people prefer this solution since *they don't even know* 1)


So please let me redefine my proposed solution: maybe in simple and medium
mode of dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg, the wizard could ask for the
display-size, so that the user can choose from [13'', 14,1'' 15'', 17'',
19'', 21''] (just some common sizes here). Then the wizard could write the
"DisplaySize xxx yyy" for me, without forcing me to do some md5sum-stuff
afterwards.

In advanced mode the wizard could even let me enter the x-/y-Size by hand.
But the point here is: Give the (average or even newbie) user a chance to
fix this problem. Some useres just don't want to edit a config file which
is controlled by a config-dialog and has some mechanism to block manual
intervetion (md5sum...). So they rather live with the default, which they
think must than have some reason...

If this for some reason fails, the last thing the config-tool could do for
the user is at least default to 96dpi -- honestly: how many monitors you
have bought in the last few years really just do 75dpi?

I understand, your point, that calculating the dpi by asking for DisplaySize
and preferred Resolution would go to far (and might be wrong in some cases)
but asking for the DisplaySize during setup can't be too wrong, and if so
please take into account how often we had this dpi-discussion and how often
somebody asks in your local debian.user.$lang why his fonts are messed up.

I really don't want to sound rude -- but this problem is so annoying and
exists for such a long time, that I think for usabilitys sake its time for
a solution.


Kind regards

Bastian