[plug] Web Browser Visualisation

[Craig Ringer]

Bernd Felsche wrote:

> Try it at different screen resolutions. A not-insignificant number
> of luser have 640x480 screens on 17" monitors. Yet others have
> 1600x1200 on 17" monitors.

I never used to be able to wrap my head around that one. People would 
always say "but the screen is too small otherwise" (translation: the 
type is too small with a higher display resolution). Then I tried 
increasing the type size in Windows and understood ... one reinstall of 
the user's machine later.

When it comes to resolution though, on a NON BROKEN browser and 
rendering system, resolution should not matter. Points are a physical 
measure of size, not bound to a particular pixel count. If I could use 
1600x1200 on a 14" monitor, I'd have a lovely smooth and actually decent 
resolution display for once, and could expect to be able to read 9 point 
type much better than on a 1024x768 17" monitor.It should be the same 
size, but smoother and more detailed. Of course, I wouldn't have much 
screen area :-( .

I don't know if any platform actually manages that, unfortunately. I 
know that XFree86+freetype2 tries and succeeds to some extent (under an 
X/Freetype2 system you can increase your resolution and get smoother 
fonts at the same size), but it seems far from perfect. Websites 
specifying font sizes in px (!!) don't help.

MacOS X may get some way toward that ideal too. Win9x most definitely 
doesn't, and I don't know enough about XP - we just got our first XP box 
here to run Acrobat and PitStop, and I don't really use it.

Anyway ... ideally, resolution should only matter the same way it does 
for a printer - nicer quality, same size. Sadly that doesn't appear to 
be the case under current OSes. It amazes me that I'm still working on 
an 84x84dpi display at work and only 110x110dpi at home. Monitor tech 
moves more slowly, I guess.

--
Craig Ringer