If Win7 textsize = 120%, what Zoom + what "DPI when autogenerated" for 1 to 1 pixels?

[shiphen]

Hi

If my Windows textsize DPI is set to 120%, what zoom should I set my Xara (Designer Pro X v8.1)'s Zoom to in order to get 1 pixel on the Xara document to map to 1 pixel on the screen?

e.g. I want see exactly what a web page graphic will look like when exported etc.
Fwiw, I have made my imported bitmaps 1 pixel per pixel setting in Xara; I have set my options to Bitmap = 'never smooth'.
For now my "DPI when autogenerated" is still set at 96DPI (although perhaps I should change this too so that I can simply use the zoom setting to "100%" ??)
All very confusing to my small brain.

Background - the reason why I have increased the Window7 Textsize DPI is because I have a high resolution screen and the text is too small to read. I have changed it to 120% because that is about right (and any larger increase makes various things start to go wrong on (e.g.) web pages and dialogue boxes etc. But I could easily change it to a better number if that helps.

Cheers

J

P.S. Yes, my screen is running at native resolution.

EDIT: Update 83% zoom seems to very nearly do it!

[handrawn]

correct - it will be ratio 5:6 [100:120] ie 83.3333333 for as long as you wish to go

[shiphen]

correct - it will be ratio 5:6 [100:120] ie 83.3333333 for as long as you wish to go

That's a rather painful ratio - is there any other way of doing it?
e.g. At the risk of asking a stupid question, is there any way to getting 100% zoom to show the same size on screen as a website would?
Failing that in how can I get nice round numbers? e.g. I suppose I could go up to 125% DPI, which would mean 80% becomes 1:1 pixel ratio... BUT all the Windows applications (including XARA dialogue boxes, I may say) start to misbehave and text starts becoming invisible (e.g. the colour hex RGB digits are no longer all visible at once I noticed).

What does everyone else do if they are using high res screens ?

J


P.S What is so significant about 96 - why is it always 96DPI?

[Scotty]

Hi,
I run windows 7 Premium on a 24" monitor, am 69 yr old and run at 96dpi...
My way of looking at your delemma is ( not to be nasty)..Is you are designing a website for the world to see...not just you if you design for just you to see fine but think of the others you want to see your site..let the site viewers decide what scale to use.
Jim

[Egg Bramhill]

All very confusing to my small brain.

And mine too. I'm with Jim on this one, just keep your dpi to 96 and you'll see what everyone else sees.

You could possibly set up another user on your system and set that to 96dpi as this is user dependant but this seems like a lot of hard work swapping back & forth.

What is so significant about 96 - why is it always 96DPI?

It isn't. Apple Macs originally used 72dpi based on the printing industry font size I believe. You'll still see websites recommending you export images at 72 ppi. Windows machines have always been 96 dpi. The whole things a minefield. The latest iphone has 326 pixels per inch display & Samsung are rumoured to be producing an even higher resolution.

[handrawn]

I also think it would be best to stick to 96 dpi - having a second monitor at a different size is also a solution if that's an option for you - the maths we have to live with...

[shiphen]

I also think it would be best to stick to 96 dpi - having a second monitor at a different size is also a solution if that's an option for you - the maths we have to live with...

Not to be sarcastic, but only only have the one screen and I don't have a PC *just* for Xara use!
And no staying at a windows text size of 100% DPI, simply is not an option for me. The text on almost all my windows applications (not just web browsers) is uncomfortably small to read.

But listen up - this isn't must my problem... Frankly anyone using one of the new Windows 8 laptops & tablets that have "1080p" screens that are only 11 to 13inches in size will have even worse problems!

Conclusion:
We need better answers to this problem.

J

[handrawn]

ok - but it isn't a xara issue - its a consequence of the way windows is, and the way the hardware is made

as Egg said, if you stick with the standard settings then you will see what your site visitors see [or at least most of them - because there will always be some who have their computers set up differently, and over that you have absolutely no control]

further there is no absolute guarantee that if you design a site at more that 100% font size, you will see what someone viewing at 100% sees, no matter what zoom you adopt

if you stick with 100% font and adjust the resolution of your monitor you should get a better idea - although if it's a flat screen rather than a CRT, that is not an ideal solution either, so two monitors at different resolutions might in that case make it easier to work with, it was only a suggestion...

I have to use reading glasses to view my screen clearly - I am not unsympathetic...

[shiphen]

> ok - but it isn't a xara issue - its a consequence of the way windows is, and the way the hardware is made

Not very helpful. To state to obvious, yes Xara does need to work within the constraints of the operating system... and find easy-to-use, ergonomic answers.

On Xara's InfoBar there is dropdown offering zoom levels (amongst others) of: 50%, 75%, 100%, 200%
I have discovered that with my scroll wheel I can zoom in and out to zoom levels of: 50%, 64%, 80%, 100%, 125%, 160%, 200%.

Ah-ha "80%" !
So I have now set my Windows text size to 125% (which I may say *is* one of the pre-set Windows settings)... 100/125 = 80% !
And now with a simple scroll of my scroll wheel I can see my graphics on a WYSIWYG basis.
i.e. 1 pixel on screen = 1 pixel on output image.

Problem solved. (Eventually.)

J

[handrawn]

except that you cannot guarantee that what you see will be what your viewer sees at 100% text size - so you will still need to check that out

don't mean to be unhelpful

presumably you have got round this problem too:

I suppose I could go up to 125% DPI, which would mean 80% becomes 1:1 pixel ratio... BUT all the Windows applications (including XARA dialogue boxes, I may say) start to misbehave....

well done