Xfce Forum

ironhak

Member

Registered: 2024-06-21

Posts: 10

Fractional scaling... loss of quality

Hello, I have a laptop with Linux Mint xfce edition, sometimes I plug it into an external 4k display.
With Linux Mint Cinnamon I set the fractional scaling to 1.5x and everything is perfect:

As you see the text is crisp and perfectly rendered.

On xfce in order to achieve the same I set the fractional scaling to 0.75x075 and here's the result:

As you (may) see, the text looks blurred... The photo makes no justice by the way, with my own eyes it's really bad quality.

Is there a way to have the same fractional scaling of Cinnamon, that is without this loss of quality?

Thank's.

eriefisher

Member

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 459

Re: Fractional scaling... loss of quality

Under Settings>>Display>>General Tab>>Scale. The drop down menu should give you several choices.

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Siduction
Debian Sid
Xfce 4.18

ironhak

Member

Registered: 2024-06-21

Posts: 10

Re: Fractional scaling... loss of quality

That's fully equivalent. It does not change the end result.

eriefisher

Member

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 459

Re: Fractional scaling... loss of quality

What dpi are you using Settings>>Appearance>>Fonts.

This may help.    https://winaero.com/find-change-screen-dpi-linux/

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Siduction
Debian Sid
Xfce 4.18

ironhak

Member

Registered: 2024-06-21

Posts: 10

Re: Fractional scaling... loss of quality

It's default 96. I can't mess around with it because it affects also the display of laptop and I would have to fix it everytime I switch display.

eriefisher

Member

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 459

Re: Fractional scaling... loss of quality

This is older but may help set a different dpi for each screen.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/197828/ … screen-dpi

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Siduction
Debian Sid
Xfce 4.18

ironhak

Member

Registered: 2024-06-21

Posts: 10

Re: Fractional scaling... loss of quality

This is older but may help set a different dpi for each screen.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/197828/ … screen-dpi

> This i only a workaround, cause you loose the real resolution. With this scaling your monitor only displays half the pixel instead of re-rendering it in the scaled resolution

This is the problem, quote found in the link you provided.

I don't understand why there is this awuful blur and in Cinnamon or KDE I can just set the fractional scaling and everything works.

Edit:
- If I set fractional scaling to 0.75x0.75 -> Blurred.
- If I set fractional scaling to 0.75x0.75 & increase DPI with the method of your link (so in my case from 96 to 140)-> Still Blurred.
- If I set fractional scaling to 1x1 (no scaling) and high DPI (140) -> Then text is sized ok but icons (such as minise/close buttons) stays small -> inconsistent and useless result.

Last edited by ironhak (2024-07-04 13:59:01)

CwF

Member

Registered: 2018-01-28

Posts: 301

Re: Fractional scaling... loss of quality

high DPI (140) -> Then text is sized ok but icons (such as minise/close buttons) stays small -> inconsistent and useless result.

This can be addressed separately,
Setting>Window Manager>Style and select something with -hdpi or -xhdpi

ironhak

Member

Registered: 2024-06-21

Posts: 10

Re: Fractional scaling... loss of quality

Does,'t fix the issue. Fractional scaling is broken on xfce and it should be fixed. It's 2024 not 2005. 4k dislpay are replcaing 1080p ones.

CwF

Member

Registered: 2018-01-28

Posts: 301

Re: Fractional scaling... loss of quality

Does,'t fix the issue.

Does for me.

On some narrowly assembled installations scaling works. For all possible tool kits in use within Linux, any scaling breaks more than it fixes. Wrong approach in my opinion.

I you want larger still then there needs to be a -xlxdpi option also. Fixed scale assets need updated, pixel references in themes abandoned, then global DPI works fine.

ironhak

Member

Registered: 2024-06-21

Posts: 10

Re: Fractional scaling... loss of quality

With Cinnamon I just press a button and it works without issues.

Please work on that.

Fix the blur and fix the weird things where higher values of scaling produces a smaller output.