Xfce Forum

guayaseal

Member

Registered: 2022-07-14

Posts: 7

higher dpi + smaller font == smaller dpi + greater font ?

I guess it's not a pure XFCE issue because "Appearance" settings just act as a frontent to GTK, X11, fontconfig etc. Moreover Thunderbird and Firefox seem to ignore it.
I have a T430s Thinkpad with a 14" 1600x900 display. Theoretically the correct dpi is 131. In fact this setting results in very ugly font rendering for all sizes (dejavu, verdana, liberation, ...) no matter what fontconfig settings are.
I've experimented and the most eyecandy ones are 11pt/102dpi (a bit better) or 10pt/112dpi (a bit worse). It's worth mentioning that 11*102=1122 and 10*112=1120.
I don't know the background on font rendering. I'm just wondering: is it a general rule that lower dpi + higher font gives better results that greater dpi (even if it's correct) + smaller fonts? Or should I target at dpi*font as close as possible to some value (let's say: 1122?). Are there any recommendations based on users' experience?
Thanks!
Regards!

chang-zhao

Member

Registered: 2023-11-20

Posts: 35

Re: higher dpi + smaller font == smaller dpi + greater font ?

AFAIK DPI is a virtual value, regardless of the actual screen dimensions, with 100% as 96 dpi. The best results for scaling must be at 96, 120, 128, 144 (100%, 125%, 133.3%, 150%) and the like. Try 12pt at 96 dpi.

Last edited by chang-zhao (2024-04-15 06:59:27)