On Fri, Jul 10, 2026 at 09:00 (+0200), Hans Hagen via ntg-context wrote:
> On 7/10/2026 4:33 AM, Jim Diamond via ntg-context wrote:
>>> so what is your screen resolution, 640x480 ?
>> **sigh** so many people talk about the number of pixels and not the pixel
>> density. 640x480 would look very sharp indeed on a 5cm x 3cm screen.
> so how many pixels per character in a 60 character line do you need
It depends on the font. With 7x13 I only need 7x13. :-)
But if I want to look at a high-quality font, a fair bit more.
And, of course, the size (in inches/mm/..., not pixels) on the screen. I
want the glyphs to be big enough to see without peering at the screen.
So I don't think I can answer your question as asked, even if you weren't
being facetious.
>>>> My screen is about 141 DPI. Not super high-res, but a whole lot better
>>>> than those "crimes against humanity" 96 DPI screens.
>>> interesting is that 1920x1200 often (on windows) looks quite ok
Perhaps I should have emphasized that PDF viewers other that AR are quite
OK, but AR with SPR is noticeably better.
>>> (but depending on where i dock the laptop I have upto 4K so various
>>> resolutions and sizes, these (even older) monitors run forever)
>> How big is that screen? 12"? 17.3"?
> i have various sizes, most are older dell's (the sturdy black ones you can
> bey cheap second hand); the low energy newer 4K is seldom used because I
> work on a (some) 70 inch 4K screen (3 m distance) that my brother put here
> when i had eys issues (the problem there is that these never hava a real
> resolution in the sense that stuff shifts, this oled tech, so the edges can
> clip off)
> the smallest screens are laptop (17 in) and a rpi screen (for the energy
> friendly setups and testing) ... zero changes for updating to some fancy 4K
> laptop (tex is tiny to zero tech after all)
I'm not sure I am any more enlightened by that, vis-a-vis what sort of DPI
you use for screens that are a "typical" distance from your face.
> ok, i lied, the smallest screen is the phone but only tex on that for
> teasing
:-)
>> Most non-SPR'ed text looks "fine" on my (1920x1080) screen. But even at
>> 141 DPI, SPR'ed text looks noticeably better to me.
> well, one reason for using windows is that it always looked ok
I only use windows once or twice a year, but if I have ever thought the
text looks better on window than on Linux (at least in AR on Linux), it was
so long ago that I have forgotten. Perhaps more (all?) programs on windows
do SPR, than they few on Linux.
>> And, for reasons I don't understand (and maybe never will), Pagella looks
>> awful in my ancient AR when it is not SPR'ed. Really awful. 7x13 X fonts
>> from 1985 look better. Recently someone (another person who may not want
>> his name connected to this thread) asked me about using Pagella for
>> ANSS-CE. I could not understand why anyone would want that, because it
>> looked so bad. But then I realized it looked bad in my AR when the page
>> wasn't SPR'ed.
> maybe no / less hinting .. who knows, i only use ubunto on linux as that is
> set up right wrt these things
Anyone still reading? Attached are two magnified images from AR on my
system. The non-SPR on is from the fr/ ANSS version, which is Pagella
(this rendering is what made me wonder why anyone would want to use
Pagella). The other is also Pagella, but apparently without something
which causes AR to lose its mind.
>>> You can always force a good old 320 horizontal pixel resolution experience:
<snip>
>>> (and then spend an evening writing your own filters that you can plug in)
>> I can't possible imagine why I would ever want to, and yet I'll keep this
>> message just in case that day comes.
> come on, i know that you love these techniques ...
Did you notice the part where I said I'd keep the message? ;-)
> everything interesting graphic is from the previous century so it must be
> familiar to you; it all being old means you can ask (google) ai to
> explain it if needed (so that you then know what wikipedia page and books
> / articles to read)
So many interesting things, so little time...
Jim
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