Fancy new 1080HD LCD monitors, really?

So I just bought a new 21.5" monitor after my old one went kaput, this one is capable of 1920x1080 resolution, and after some mucking around to get the DVI signal to work (used VGA before), I set it to the max resolution.

Granted I don't have the best eyesight for my age (28), but I can barely read the letters on the page, be it forums or various news sites I frequent. Really what the heck is the point of cramming that high resolution into a small monitor so the letters are so small and almost unreadable? 1080HD on a 46" TV, sure, but on a desktop monitor?

Well down to 1280x720 it goes.

Anybody else find the resolution on today's monitors are unnecessarily high?

jzmtl said:

So I just bought a new 21.5" monitor after my old one went kaput, this one is capable of 1920x1080 resolution, and after some mucking around to get the DVI signal to work (used VGA before), I set it to the max resolution.

Granted I don't have the best eyesight for my age (28), but I can barely read the letters on the page, be it forums or various news sites I frequent. Really what the heck is the point of cramming that high resolution into a small monitor so the letters are so small and almost unreadable? 1080HD on a 46" TV, sure, but on a desktop monitor?

Well down to 1280x720 it goes.

Anybody else find the resolution on today's monitors are unnecessarily high?

Click to expand...

My first LED which I'm using now is the Samsung SyncMaster XL2370, which was an economical 23" monitor that I have been using with that 1920 x 1080 resolution just fine. I think you either have a substandard brand, or you need more adjustments.

One thing you may find helpful is enlarging Windows DPI setting from menu below, and/or CTRL+MouseWheelUp on websites.

it's not that, the letters are simply too small to read comfortably. DPI is at 96 right now, if I change it to 120 the letters will be a bit bigger but the lines are still skinny.

Yep, the windows DPI adjustment pretty much only affects text. If you have a discrete video card, you may be able to do a true DPI adjustment with the software for the card.

I had this problem with a 1680x1050 LCD, and was never able to fix it in Windows. Oddly enough, Linux detected the correct DPI automatically, something I've usually had to set manually.

Hold down the Ctrl key, and press + until everything is the size you want.

My compliaint is actually the opposite-namely why don't we have monitors with around 300 dpi so text looks crisper. You can always resize the text to display larger or smaller, depending upon your vision. The problem is when you make it under a certain size on today's monitors it becomes unreadable, whereas text the same size on a printed page is perfectly legible.

StarHalo said:

Hold down the Ctrl key, and press + until everything is the size you want.

Click to expand...

I could, but if I make stuff bigger to compensate for the higher resolution, then what's the point of setting it to 1920x1080 at first place?

+

jzmtl, you have to understand, you cannot use the high resolution for general use,
..but you have all those pixels for other software, movies, videos, pictures, ect...ect..

ClearType Tuner will help for sure,
(I'm not completely sure if it'll work on Vista/7)

After Downloaded & Installed...You have to turn it On as follows:
Display Properties~Appearance~Effects..~then you have to check the Box for ClearType

http://www.microsoft.com/Windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

~ Also, if you use nvidia for your graphics, you can create a custom resolution {slightly advanced to do}

jtr1962 said:

My compliaint is actually the opposite-namely why don't we have monitors with around 300 dpi so text looks crisper. You can always resize the text to display larger or smaller, depending upon your vision. The problem is when you make it under a certain size on today's monitors it becomes unreadable, whereas text the same size on a printed page is perfectly legible.

Click to expand...

Given the way the human eye works, you can differentiate lines that are 1/1.7 arc-minutes apart under good lighting- .59 arc-minutes. A difference in position smaller than this is not distinguishable to the eye. If the pixels are close enough together so that one to the next is smaller than that, the display exceeds the resolution of the human eye. Each pixel can represent up to half this - so .3 arc minutes.

1 degree = 60 arc minutes.
.3 arc minutes = 1/60*1/3 degrees = .0056 degrees

If my eyes are 2 feet from the screen, then the triangle formed by half this angle gives half the pixel size.
24 inches times sin(.00278) = .001163 inches (half pixel)
.0023 inch pixel size

1/.0023 = 430 pixels per inch. Given average human vision, this would be about as good as a printed page. If your eyes are two feet from the screen.

jzmtl said:

I could, but if I make stuff bigger to compensate for the higher resolution, then what's the point of setting it to 1920x1080 at first place?

Click to expand...

You're only making everything in the browser larger using this method; it leaves other programs as-is, including graphics programs, which allows for much larger images to fit on the screen with greater detail.

jzmtl said:

it's not that, the letters are simply too small to read comfortably. DPI is at 96 right now, if I change it to 120 the letters will be a bit bigger but the lines are still skinny.

Click to expand...

You can see what I have mine set at, and I wouldn't dream of going to 120. I don't have any problem whatsoever seeing everything, and I'm older than you, sitting 3 feet away from monitor, running XP, and using an aging ATI video card. Not to sound patronizing, but are you sure your visual acuity is OK?

StarHalo said:

Hold down the Ctrl key, and press + until everything is the size you want.

Click to expand...

That's the same thing as the Ctrl + MouseWheelUp I mentioned earlier.

orbital said:

ClearType Tuner will help for sure,
(I'm not completely sure if it'll work on Vista/7)

After Downloaded & Installed...You have to turn it On as follows:
Display Properties~Appearance~Effects..~then you have to check the Box for ClearType

http://www.microsoft.com/Windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Click to expand...

I'll try that. I actually have a few power toys installed but never got that one.

StarHalo said:

You're only making everything in the browser larger using this method; it leaves other programs as-is, including graphics programs, which allows for much larger images to fit on the screen with greater detail.

Click to expand...

Guess our needs are different, I don't play games anymore so I don't have much need for graphic programs, but I do spend hours reading text on screen (not only in browser). I'm in microbiology so there are a lot of reading and writing, with little graphics. If I do need anything graphic intensive thou I go to the TV.

LuxLuthor said:

You can see what I have mine set at, and I wouldn't dream of going to 120. I don't have any problem whatsoever seeing everything, and I'm older than you, sitting 3 feet away from monitor, running XP, and using an aging ATI video card. Not to sound patronizing, but are you sure your visual acuity is OK?

Click to expand...

My eyeglasses are a few years old but I don't think my eyes has gotten any worse since then. I have a nvidia 6800 card so it's about the same generation as yours. It's not that I can't see them, but not comfortably. I need to focus on them, unlike reading a book where I can quickly scan through the page (I'm a quick reader).

I agree with jzmtl where I had to set my screen setting at 1440 X 900. It does not matter what age you are since some people have better vision than others. I know 70 year old folks with vision better than 20/20, and could read very fine print. My eyesight sucks!!!!

LuxLuthor said:

You can see what I have mine set at, and I wouldn't dream of going to 120. I don't have any problem whatsoever seeing everything, and I'm older than you, sitting 3 feet away from monitor, running XP, and using an aging ATI video card. Not to sound patronizing, but are you sure your visual acuity is OK?



That's the same thing as the Ctrl + MouseWheelUp I mentioned earlier.

Click to expand...

FlashKat said:

I agree with jzmtl where I had to set my screen setting at 1440 X 900. It does not matter what age you are since some people have better vision than others. I know 70 year old folks with vision better than 20/20, and could read very fine print. My eyesight sucks!!!!

Click to expand...

If your distance vision is off then your nearby vision is actually better. You can focus on objects from a much closer distance than most people. My late dad had no trouble reading fine print ( with his glasses off, of course ). However, his uncorrected distance vision was something like 20/400. Thankfully, mine is only about 20/200 ( right eye is a little worse ).

jzmtl,

If you're nearsighted and you're wearing glasses when looking at the monitor then that's likely the problem. You don't need your glasses for close work. I assembly circuit boards with tiny SMD components just fine without them ( and without a magnifier ). In fact, they make things worse. I just tried putting on my glasses while looking at the screen from my normal viewing distance of around 20". The smaller text blurred. Take your glasses off and see if this makes things better. I only need my glasses to see detail further away than about 5 or 6 feet. In practice this means when I watch TV. I don't even use my glasses for cycling. I can see the details needed without them. I can't read street signs of course until I'm almost on top of them, but I rarely need to anyway.

Also, even if removing the glasses doesn't solve the problem, the issue here is not too high a screen resolution. Rather, it's that the text size is too small. You can enlarge the text without changing the screen resolution. LCD monitors look like crap unless they're run at their native resolution.

I've never used a 21.5" 1920x1080 screen but I do remember the transition from using a CRT to a 24" 1920x1080. I did find everything small at first but turns out it was just a matter of getting used to it.

AnAppleSnail said:

Given the way the human eye works, you can differentiate lines that are 1/1.7 arc-minutes apart under good lighting- .59 arc-minutes. A difference in position smaller than this is not distinguishable to the eye. If the pixels are close enough together so that one to the next is smaller than that, the display exceeds the resolution of the human eye. Each pixel can represent up to half this - so .3 arc minutes.

1 degree = 60 arc minutes.
.3 arc minutes = 1/60*1/3 degrees = .0056 degrees

If my eyes are 2 feet from the screen, then the triangle formed by half this angle gives half the pixel size.
24 inches times sin(.00278) = .001163 inches (half pixel)
.0023 inch pixel size

1/.0023 = 430 pixels per inch. Given average human vision, this would be about as good as a printed page. If your eyes are two feet from the screen.

Click to expand...

Technically, that doesn't take in to account vernier acuity which does matter with viewing fine details on the screen such as text. In this case the visual system is even more sensitive requiring even higher resolution to effectively match average vernier acuity.

I'm not arguing for or against your figures (nor am I checking them). Just pointing out that the human visual system isn't quite so simple. Vernier acuity is one of those funky things our visual system does where it can differentiate small misalignments which should not be normally visible considering spacing of the receptors in our retina.

I use my distance glasses at the computer. I have to take them off when reading under about 15". I'm not saying the issue is glasses, but don't rule it out either. For sure my LED appearance compared to my previous 20" CRT is a higher resolution and smaller size items that initially was unfamiliar, but you get used to it.

Couple other things I checked. On the "Display Properties" "Appearance" tab, I have "Large Fonts" selected. On the "Effects" button, I have "Clear Type" selected for smoothing edges of fonts. I assume you have the correct driver so your specific monitor is recognzied. Then there is a program that comes with this monitor called Magic Tune that has a bunch of other custom features I setup.

I'm still rooting for you to try a custom DPI setting like I did. The default 96 setting was insanity, and 120 is grotesque. 104 is just right for me. I don't know if the quality of the LED monitor you got might be a factor in terms of response time, sharpness, etc. I spent a lot of time adjusting the Samsung settings, and at some point it all just worked and became a non-issue.

Good Luck

jzmtl said:

I could, but if I make stuff bigger to compensate for the higher resolution, then what's the point of setting it to 1920x1080 at first place?

Click to expand...

jzmtl said:

Well down to 1280x720 it goes.

Click to expand...

You always want to run an LCD monitor at it's native resolution and adjust your settings and fonts to suit your needs. In your case that's, 1920x1080. It will look it's best there. Sharper with more saturation. You'll then want to first try increasing the DPI setting like LuxLuthor suggested. I have my DPI setting at 110 and it's also a 1920x1080 resolution monitor. I also do the Ctrl + MouseWheelUp thing in the browser on some websites but you can also set font sizes and a minimum text size in the browser options. Well, you can in Firefox anyway. That's all I use. That helped alot for me.

Also, should you happen to be running Windows 7, there's a built-in text tweaking utility which might help-out too.
Here's a link to get you started. I know it made my new laptop easier to read.

Another link...

And another...

And while we're doing links, it's important that you appreciate your new investment. Go here and click the photo.

24" widescreen 1080p monitors are the perfect size. Granted I wear my reading glasses, but that's pretty much par for the course for everything these days.

I've never been a fan of adjusting the DPI in Windows. If the fonts are too small, it's better to just get a bigger monitor. Increasing the DPI has subtle effects all over the place from the layout of browser windows to the arrangement of the icons in the Control Panel.