On 2009/08/10 12:06 (GMT-0700) David Hucklesby composed: > Theresa Mesa wrote:
> ...the nominal DPI can be changed in the operating system. Most > Windows and Mac boxes come set to 96 DPI these days. But note that Unix > boxes, and my hi-def IBM laptop, come with higher DPI settings quite > frequently. You can, of course, change this if you wish. Actually unless something has changed since my last OS X upgrade, it is not possible to change the system DPI on a modern Mac. It's hard-wired to 96. Some apps (e.g. Geckos: layout.css.dpi in about:config) can have another DPI applied. OTOH, on Linux typically either 96 is defaulted regardless of actual display DPI (e.g. Fedora, Mandriva), or the greater of actual DPI or 96 (e.g. openSUSE) is applied system-wide. On the higher resolution laptops with Windows pre-installed, it's common for vendors to preset DPI to 120 during manufacture/configuration. When they don't those higher priced models often languish on shelves due to shoppers noticing the smaller sizes of text and other screen objects on their physically larger screens. > As far as CSS is concerned, note that IE and Opera compensate for the > smaller dot size by increasing "medium" text. On my 120DPI IBM "medium" > is increased from 16px to 20px. What Opera does seems to change from release to random release and keep me baffled. :-p The reason why IE does what it does, like other non-Gecko Linux browsers other than Opera, is that its preference sizing is done in pt rather than px. It is because 12pt equals 16px at (the Windows default of) 96 DPI that medium happens to be 16px on most Windows systems. Increase Windows system DPI to the next increment of 120, and the conversion of 12pt shifts to 20px, the next, 144 DPI, to 24px, and the last, 192 DPI, to 32px. Medium is always 12pt, but the px size of 12pt depends on the DPI setting applied to the desktop. Even 72 DPI, for a 1 to 1 12px to 12pt ratio, is possible (but not recommended) on Windows. O_O -- How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver. Proverbs 16:16 NKJV Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [cs...@lists.css-discuss.org] http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
