Display scaling settings. Every OS has them. They let you render your UI larger while still taking advantage of the increased resolution. For instance a 4k display at 200% display scaling will have everything be the same size as an equivalent 1080p screen, but will still look much smoother because it is actually using the proper resolution for rendering.
What feature is that? Tons of assumptions and assholes around here.
SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.world 4 days ago
KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 days ago
Why would I want that? I literally got a bigger screen for more real estate and more text, why would I get a 4k screen and turn it into a smoother 1080p screen?
It slike people who buy 24"+ 1080p screens, they look like dogwater, why would you want that.
michaelmrose@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Scaling does NOT turn your 4K screen into a smoother 1080p screen. Fonts are the perfect example modern fonts aren’t pixels they are resolution independent descriptions of shapes. One could draw an S as small as it appears as one you see in this comment or as big as your screen. As its drawn bigger and bigger the curve is drawn with more and more pixels and the letter has the same form and shape at any size.
Whereas monitors range from 68-360 dpi you probably CAN read a 12 pt font at around 6mm on a monitor 12-18 inches away but probably CAN’T read it at 1mm because your eyes just can’t resolve or can’t comfortably resolve shapes below a certain size even with infinite pixels. It is possible you can read slightly smaller text which you can achieve by slightly tweaking font size in addition to scaling.
EG you scale your 4K monitor at 2x but decrease font size from 12 -> 10 pt or whatever combination produces a pleasant usable experience for you.
Similarly graphics aren’t degraded. Your 4K video isn’t scaled down to 1080p because you are scaled at 2x. Your environment gives your video player a rectangle to fill with pixels. The controls drawn by the app are scaled the contents are the contents of the video file as decoded. The same is true of graphics but because graphics aren’t resolution independent it depends on high enough resolution assets being available. Your browser given a 400x400 space to draw an image linstead of a 200x200 will draw a nicer image if one is available.
TLDR: Scaling makes high dpi displays look nicer not shittier. Integer scaling is nicer and simpler but fractional scaling is needed for some less common resolution and size combos. Setting scaling and then tweak font size to taste.
SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Because if you buy a laptop or something that has a 16 inch 4k screen the text will be nearly unreadable. Or some people have poor eyesight so want larger text while still being able to watch movies/play games in a higher res. It has tons of use cases, just because they don’t apply to you doesn’t mean it is useless.
KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 days ago
Oh sorry, you’re not the person who was being rude to me above, my bad.
Yes, for sure, those are all valid. In my case it’s a 28" desktop monitor, so I prefer everything to be small.
michaelmrose@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Correct is UI elements including text graphics and controls displaying somewhere in the expected range for human use. Literally impossible on 180+ DPI machines without scaling
KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Here we go, taken from where my head usually sits. I just copied some random text in so you can see. And yes, this is exactly the way I use it every day. Quite unimpossible for me.
Excuse the OS, that’s forced upon me by work.
Bonus 1080p screen on the side.
Works pretty fucking amazing for me and I plan on replacing my side monitors with 4k ones too because they feel too cramped.
Image
michaelmrose@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Based on the screenshot I’m pretty sure you are are 150% scaling. Do you also describe yourself as a windows power user?
KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 hours ago
Tomorrow when I’m back on my pc I’ll take a photo of the scaling settings because apparently all I’ve done so far is lie.
I used to be a MS sys admin for the first 10 years of my career and I have I think 10 certs, so I guess? I don’t really consider myself much of a windows anything since moving to cloud based sys eng and devops roles. I’m not sure what that makes me? I hate MS and windows so 🤷♀️, not that it really matters, I know that the question was more snark than anything else.