Running lower than native res on a monitor without it looking bad

[Barfo]

My mom has a 1080p 23" monitor but she can't see very well so text, icons and pretty much everything is too small for her to see.

So I'm trying to think of a way to make life easier for her, simplest solution would be to lower the resolution so everything looks bigger, but of course since it's not the native res it looks washed out and generally bad.
Anyone know of a way to make this happen without the non-native res problems?

 

[BenSkywalker]

Which OS is she using?

 

[Barfo]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
Which OS is she using?

Windows XP

 

[DaveSimmons]

It depends on the monitor. My classic Dell 2001FP looks great at 1024x768, native resolution is 1600x1200.

Also you'll want to keep the aspect ration the same, 16:9 => 16:9 not a 4:3 or 16:10 resolution.

You could also go into Windows display settings to increase the DPI to 120 (Display > Settings > advanced > general)

 

[kylebisme]

Windows DPI settings unfortunately only work well for some things, and mess up others.

As for running a lower resolution, you'll likely get better results from setting the the video device to do the scaling rather than the monitor, depending on what video device you are using. And like Dave said, keep the resolution 16:9, something like 1760x990 or 1600x900 should do the trick.

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: kylebisme
Windows DPI settings unfortunately only work well for some things, and mess up others.

As for running a lower resolution, you'll likely get better results from setting the the video device to do the scaling rather than the monitor, depending on what video device you are using. And like Dave said, keep the resolution 16:9, something like 1760x990 or 1600x900 should do the trick.

This. If only MS would do what it takes... Aero was their opportunity to make vector graphics in the UI and they blew it.

 

[Barfo]

Originally posted by: kylebisme
Windows DPI settings unfortunately only work well for some things, and mess up others.

As for running a lower resolution, you'll likely get better results from setting the the video device to do the scaling rather than the monitor, depending on what video device you are using. And like Dave said, keep the resolution 16:9, something like 1760x990 or 1600x900 should do the trick.

I think I'm going to do this, with 1280x720.

 

[faxon]

try 960x540 res. it is exactly 1/4th the pixel draw of 1920x1080 so it should scale perfectly. it's also a tiny ass resolution, but it will still look good

ed: to clarify, you basically divide the native resolution in half (1920/2 x 1080x2) for whatever resolution is your native res. it uses 4 pixels for every "pixel" that way and while it will look a bit "blocky" so to speak it should help avoid the nasty scaling issues you are talking about.

 

[Jephph]

If she has trouble reading things, you know you can zoom in and/or increase text size in your browser. Also, you can set any word processor to default to a higher font size.

 

[dflynchimp]

If I read the OP right, he's saying that the scaling on his monitor in resolutions other than native is less than stellar.

This isn't simply an OS or software problem, but rather is inherent in all LCD monitors. It's one of the few areas in which LCD's are inferior to the older CRT displays (alongside response time).

LCD's have a set pixel pitch (individual pixel dimension) and can't actually change the size of its pixels to scale to a non-native resolution. This results in uneven pixel sizes being used.

Faxon is right about the 1/2 scaling (using 4 pixels as one), but things still aren't that perfect, because the LCD when used like that (or maybe it's the OS/software) renders an AA like blending effect in an effort to smooth the bigger blocks, and the entire image just comes off as blurry. I could be wrong about this, but my eyes definitely tell me that using 960X600 vs 1920X1200 isn't a perfect transition.

 

[Schmide]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...r_Video_Standards2.svg

Just try a few of these standard resolutions and one might pop out at ya.

 

[SSChevy2001]

Originally posted by: kylebisme
As for running a lower resolution, you'll likely get better results from setting the the video device to do the scaling rather than the monitor, depending on what video device you are using. And like Dave said, keep the resolution 16:9, something like 1760x990 or 1600x900 should do the trick.

Actually I have 4870 and it's just the opposite. The GPU scaler looks blurry compared to the monitor internal scaler, which seems to be the default for ATi.

What I did is use powerstrip to create custom resolutions ( 1776x999, 1600x900, 1536x864, 1440x810, and 1296x729 ) and they all look very sharp, because they use the LCD internal scaler. For some reason though 1280x720 will still get upsaled by the video card, so that's why I have 1296x729.

I'm telling you it's a night and day difference in how much sharper the image looks with the internal LCD scaler. Hopefully the OP's LCD has a good internal scaler.