WUXGA - Blurry font

It was too late before I found this forum. Recently bought a 6000D, 2 GHz, 15.4 in. WUXGA, Win Xp and now facing a blurry font problem.

Please advice if there is a cure. I tried the solution posted here , but with no success. Thanks.

 

You mean that you liked the fonts the way they were when you got your laptop, but now something has changed and they have become blurry, and want to restore them to their previous state?

 

qwester, I did not like the set up that came with the laptop as the fonts are blurry when I browse websites using IE. The suggested changes on Dell didn't fix the problem either.

 

Check you display properties and mess around with enabling or disabling the clearfont for edge smoothing properties. If it is you text that are only blurry, you cannot blame the laptop, it is software, not hardware.

 

you do this by, right mouse clicking on the windows desktop, click on appearance tab, then press the effect button and mess around with font smoothing, that can make test appear smooth by making them slightly blurred. I hate it on any system

 

Its not possible to browse using IE on my 9300... the contents ( text,images ) are all blurred. (atleast it happens on my notebook)

Firefox is the answer.

 

what dpi are you set at? i believe dell ships the wuxga 6000 at 120 which can distort images/text. for things to be crisp and clear, you need to set the dpi to 96.

there should also be an IE fix on dell's driver download page.

 

i suggest getting your laptop set to its native resolution, normal 96 dpi, then make sure to disable smooth edges of screen fonts.

 

Yeah, sounds like your laptop is not in it's native resolution. LCD's have a certain 'grid' - when forced to put on a non-native resolution, you get the bluriness, because the image is stretched....

 

Change your default browser to either Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla, or Opera. All three are HD-friendly, IE isn't. Whatever you do with a WUXGA screen, IE will never quite do the job. You will be OK with the new XP OS, Vista, along with IE7. If fonts are really "blurry", you are not running the screen at the native resolution. In that case it doesn't matter what other fix you do it will always be blurry. That's not the screen's fault nor the software.

 

I am sitting here wondering why so many 9300 users are having trouble, my 9300 has been perfect since bootup in all regards.

That said I did mess around with the DPI etc and yes it makes the pages look crap and text blurred. Nothing wrong with IE, just change certain settings and you will be right.

 

Thanks for all your input guys.

I changed the following per suggestions.

1. Downloaded Mozilla Firefox.
2. changed dpi to 96.
3. Tried playing with different settings on SMOOTH EDGES OF SCREEN FONTS and liked the best output with "Clear Type" ENABLE.

Also, chatted with DELL and they suggested the following.

Remove the battery and AC power from the system.
Press and hold the power button for 10 to15 seconds.
Reattach the AC adapter to the system.
Power the system on, put back the battery.

All the above steps indeed helped a little bit. But, still the fonts is not sharp and crisp.

Perhaps, I made a mistake in ordering WUXGA screen. I didn't know native resolution (1920 x 1200) will be that small.

Q. Please advise if it is possible to ask DELL to replace it?
Q. In case I want to work at 1280 X 800 resolution, what settings (besides already discussed) would you suggest I should make to get the best performance?

I appreciate all your help. Thanks again.

 

If you set dpi/ppi to 96 you may prefer trying something like 120. I use that, and have done for 5 years, and find 120-125 about right for a screen that has a dpi/ppi of 147. The combined result of a native ppi of 147 and an OS (software) ppi of 120 is very clear. But then you need to adjust ppi (if possible) and font size in each application that you use on top of XP. e.g. Firefox gives the option to adjust ppi, and also font size (I use a minimum of 24). Thunderbird, OE, and Outlook also needs font adjustment. Most programmes give font or zoom options, if not ppi. You can also adjust font size in XP itself for its cross-application fonts. Or you can try out a little programme called LiquidView from http://personalcomputing.portrait.com/us/products/lv_overview.html that does similar things semi-automatically. The LiquidView site has some very helpful pages that might help you: http://personalcomputing.portrait.com/us/products/lv_powerofpixels.html
http://personalcomputing.portrait.com/us/products/lv_humanfactors_whitepaper.html
http://personalcomputing.portrait.com/us/products/lv_xp_whitepaper.html
PS I also use "extra large fonts" in XP interface

 

something is definitely wrong with your setup. wuxga will give you the most crisp and clear fonts and images of any notebook resolution due to the fact that it has the most pixels available.

make sure you are

1. running at 1920x1200
2. running at 96 dpi
3. enabled cleartype

is the browser the only place you are experiencing blurry fonts or does it happen elsewhere such as Word?

 

1) Complete agreement. Never run other than in native mode (in the case of WUXGA, 1920x1200), If you wanted to run in 1280x800, you should have bought a WXGA screen. The WUXGA screen has around 50% more pixels per inch: once setup properly, it has to be much much clearer for any and every screen image, including text. The problem with XP is that it has screen defaults designed for WXGA (therefore those defaults have to be inappropriate for WSXGA and WUXGA!). 2006's replacement for XP, Vista, will be HD-compliant, and this XGA/WXGA default issue will no longer be a problem for HD screen users. As of now we just have to make our own adjustments in an OS that is behind the times for HD screens like the WUXGA.

2) I suggest experimenting. The best ppi/dpi settings again are individual and best experimented with to find right match between user, software and screen. For a 147 ppi screen I suggest trying 96, then 147 to witness the extremes, then 110 and 120 for in-betweens, and by then you should know which balance is the one right for you and your screen.

3) There's more to be done: cleartype can be dramatically tuned for the specific screen and user by going to http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx or by downloading the Microsoft ClearType Tuner PowerToy from http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx

 

It my also be a hardwareproblem with the graphiccard

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Way to test if that is the case is to run an external monitor.