Sunday, April 18, 2004

Looking for Hi-Res LCD Monitors

One of the things that bugs me is that I can't find a desktop LCD monitor that has a reasonable DPI. For example, the Toshiba laptop that I use has a 15" LCD with a resolution of 1400x1050. That works out to a DPI value of 1400 / 11.25" or 124dpi. A regular desktop 15" LCD monitor seems to only be available in 1024x768 resolutions (1024 / 11.25") or 91 dpi. Worse, the current Toshiba laptop has the option of a 15" 1600x1200 display. That has a dpi of 142.

142dpi looks a lot nicer then 91dpi. Even with my 124dpi LCD, changing the screen DPI setting from 96dpi to 120dpi and turning on ClearType results in a very crisp display of text that is nice and easy on the eyes. Ideally, I'd love a 200dpi or 300dpi display (IBM makes a 200dpi display, but I think it's greyscale and a few years old). I figure that once we'd hit 300dpi LCDs, you really won't notice any broken pixels.

To change your monitor DPI in WindowsXP:

1. Right-click on the desktop, select "Properties"
   
2. Select the "Settings" tab, click the "Advanced" button
   
3. Select the "General" tab, change the "DPI setting" drop-down
   

To enable/disable ClearType in WindowsXP:

1. Right-click on the desktop, select "Properties"
   
2. Select the "Appearance" tab, click the "Effects" button
   
3. Change the "Use the following method to smooth..." setting
   

posted by Wuphon's at 2:24 PM