X220 tiny fonts hurt the eyes badly

Anyone feels the same? The screen of X220 is very tough on my eyes. The fonts are tiny. I know I can zoom 5X the fonts in the web browser, but it's inconvenient, and the Windows boxes and menus etc. are tiny, too. When I got my x200s I thought its fonts too small, but x220 is worse. Maybe the next X-series model will require magnifiers.

 

The X200s has 124.7 dpi, the X220 has 125.4 dpi. Somehow I doubt that 0,7 dpi more make much of a difference...

 

Just found the change dpi text size! That's what I did with x200s.

 

that's why i switched to the t410s, which imho is a much better machine.

 

The only problem with changing the text size is that some application menus won't display correctly.

 

An alternative is to set the display scaling to 125%. I think that enlarges everything, not just the text.

John

 

It does enlarge everything, and works quite well in Win7. Unfortunately, there are still those applications that fail to show their window correctly when you do this. But most of the applications should run fine.

 

I think the x200s is close to 140dpi, so I'm surprised things look smaller on the x220.

 

and to think people want even 1400/*** screen, god help your eyes then!!

 

Oh man... You're complaining about the characteristics of 1366*768 on a 12.5" display as being too strenuous?

 

At least Microsoft Office 2007 does NOT work correctly, which is ironic.

 

I just change Chrome's page zoom (options/ under the bonnet) to 120% because most of my reading is done in the browser. I would prefer to keep it at 100% because it looks a bit better but even with reading glasses, it's a strain.

On a side note, I strongly suspect that 6 years of daily computer and internet use (mainly social network sites) has accelerated my age-related long-sightedness (presbyopia). Has it been worth that cost?

 

I've no idea how old you are toast but once you get to your mid forties, your eyesight will probably deteriorate and small text will become more difficult to read.

Sometimes in life you have to experience things in order to really understand them

 

I'm not saying that your needs shouldn't be accommodated, but it's disappointing that manufacturers pay so much attention to your portion of the bell curve (either consciously, or in coincidence with their own aims).

 

Yep, I think the X200s's default DPI setting was set higher (probably Medium setting), while the X220's default DPI value is the standard Windows value. That's likely responsible for the higher-DPI X200s screen having larger text than the lower-DPI X220 screen.

My dad got a new X220 last month to replace his old T60, and although his vision is even worse than mine and he's nearly 60, his only compliant about the X220 is the low resolution and low DPI value compared to his old 4:3 1400x1050 14" T60. Definitely a personal preference that doesn't really have a correlation with vision.

 

Something that works well for me, in respect to Chrome, or any application really that lets you, I changed all the fonts to Verdana; it is a small change that made a big difference for me and people who get my emails, which are composed with Verdana, note that it is easier to read as well.

FWIW


Have a Magical Day!

 

Thanks, will try that out!

Absolutely. And I never said I didn't like higher resolution screens.

 

Verdana definitely makes everything more readable for me even though the normal DPI is comfortable. I definitely would have trouble with the Vaio Z's 13" 1920 x 1080 screen at standard settings, though it would make everything crisper.

 

I thought the font that you changed only has effect on your side. When people receive your emails, the fonts they see should be determined by their screen settings, so not necessarily Verdana etc.?

Btw I just tried google chrome and it is indeed much better than the other browsers. The screen size is relatively larger, too because on the top of the screen the tabs, address bar only take minimum space.

 

I don't know about you, but I receive many emails with a variety of fonts and colors; many of which I would not choose. Poke around your email client(s); you'll probably find that you can alter the font you compose your msg's in as well.

Chrome certainly has its pluses, but I have heard some lament the fact that it may drain their battery quicker than, say, IE; so keep an eye on that.


Have a Magical Day!

 

If you change the font of your outgoing email via the email settings, then the recipient will see that font. But not so if you simply change the font via your screen display settings. That only affects how the text is seen by you. For example if you plug in an external screen and adjust it to a different settings than your laptop display settings, then you'll see the two screens display the same thing differently. This is what I believe to be the case.

 

Also I have observed that at least Windows 7 (but probably also Vista) adjust the DPI settings automatically for you on first startup, based on the screen resolution and the panel size. So it was not something Lenovo would preset - because it happened also on clean installs.

My guess is, that if the hardware/drivers communicate the physical size of the display to Windows, Windows will calculate the physical DPI and adjust itself to make for a comfortable computing experience. It might end up guessing wrong, but I think for most people this it would work, because they would never bother with DPI settings.

For example my T500 always ends up somewhere near 125% after a clean install. But for my X201i, this does not happen.

 

is it just me or did everything just get smaller after switching back to 100%? Darn my curiosity for putting it into 125%...btw that font trick really helped

 

Unless I use an external monitor, I find it very nice to have 125% setup. Windows 7 scales icons and everything else, so yes, everything did get smaller when you got back to 100%

 

hmmm yeah i find the 125% pretty tight as well. Although i did notice that it was unproportionally smaller than everything else (looking at fonts that is), hence my going back to 100%. @lenardg whats your set up for display? 125% right...and for the fonts in your browser what size do you have them?

 

Lately I use a 24" display at home, so I have it set Windows scaling to 100%, otherwise everything is huge on the display

Usually I just change the Windows 7 setting to 125% (or sometimes I just use 120%) if needed. I do not change anything else, so I leave browser font size to default settings. That way I do not have to setup everything again if I change the Windows setting.

But I do increase/decrease browser font size on the fly (Ctrl-+ or Ctrl-- for Chrome, also Ctrl-mousewheel works. Ctrl-0 to reset)

 

Lol. That was my experience as well with my previous X220. Changed to 125% and back to 100%, only to find that it hadn't gone back to how it was.

For that reason, I've only changed the Chrome setting this time around. Scared to mess with Windows.

 

Correct.

I have it set for Verdana for both.




Have a Magical Day!

 

Sounds like me, except mine was a T42 with the same screen as your dad's T60. The dpi is virtually the same on both (T42:124.11 vs X220:125.37). Really missed the 4:3 resolution at first, but I have adjusted. I moved the taskbar from the bottom to the right side of the display, and I removed some menu bars from my browser. This gained me some vertical real estate with my X220.

Now that I look at my T42 - it looks 'old'.

 

Firefox has a NoSquint addon that lets you override scaling per-site. Useful for those common sites you visit that don't take to a fixed scaling well. Also text color override, but no font override, AFAIK.