How to optimally adjust text size?

[flycaster]

I just got a new laptop whose wide-screen is 15.6". The screen resolution is at the recommended level, 1366X768, which is also the screen's naive resolution. I have set the custom DPI to 130 as I am trying to get a larger (but not too large) text showing on the screen, but yet having a larger size while still having everything fit. I would still like to make the text just a little larger, but without causing things not to fit the screen. Would appreciate recommendations on how to manipulate the text sizing parameters so as to have things fit the screen and not to induce distortions.

 

[dunfiddlin]

I'm not sure what you're expecting us to say here. The recommended screen resolution is recommended for good reason. The text size comes in three flavours with Windows for good reason. In both cases straying from the recommended levels almost always leads to distortion or blur. Anything outside these parmeters is just trial and error and more significantly something only you can judge. There's no magic formula.

 

[flycaster]

I'm not sure what you're expecting us to say here. The recommended screen resolution is recommended for good reason. The text size comes in three flavours with Windows for good reason. In both cases straying from the recommended levels almost always leads to distortion or blur. Anything outside these parmeters is just trial and error and more significantly something only you can judge. There's no magic formula.

Guess I was looking for that "magic formula." But now that I know that trial and error is involved, I'm OK.

 

[fishnbanjo]

If you have a Scroll set up on your Touchpad or have a Mouse attached with one simply hold down the CTRL key and scroll toward the screen to increase view and toward you to make it less, I think this might be what you want.

 

[Ivo]

Two thoughts:

1) You can't have things larger and still fit the same amount of stuff on screen. Obviously at a higher DPI setting there will be things that used to fit and now don't.

2) I think 130 is a non-standard DPI, so even programs that try to look nice depending on the DPI will get stumped. Try something standard, like 120 (125%) or 144 (150%).

 

[flycaster]

Ivo and fishnbanjo:
Right now, with the DPI and resolution settings I have on Windows7, text for the most part is fairly good and everything on my browser (Maxthon2) pages and email client's (Thunderbird3) pages fits fine. I'm just looking to increase text size by a little bit. When doing the scroll/control thing, I find, as indicated by M2, that 110% zoom is where I want to be. Is there any way to set a default screen size at 110% zoom?

 

[fishnbanjo]

Ivo and fishnbanjo:
Right now, with the DPI and resolution settings I have on Windows7, text for the most part is fairly good and everything on my browser (Maxthon2) pages and email client's (Thunderbird3) pages fits fine. I'm just looking to increase text size by a little bit. When doing the scroll/control thing, I find, as indicated by M2, that 110% zoom is where I want to be. Is there any way to set a default screen size at 110% zoom?

While this answer is for Firefox I would think Thunderbird would be similar being a Mozilla product.

You can configure Firefox to display all text at a minimum font size. If a web page contains text that is smaller than your defined minimum size, Firefox increases the font size of the text to this minimum.
To set a minimum text size:

1. At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar​
   , click on the
   ToolsFirefoxEdit​
   menu, and select
   Options...Preferences...​
   .
2. Select the Content panel.
3. In the Fonts & Colors pane, click
   Advanced...​
   .
4. In the Minimum Font Size drop-down, select the minimum size in points in which all text must be displayed.
   • Font size is measured in points. There are 72 points in an inch. The most common font sizes are 10pt and 12pt.

 

[flycaster]

With Thunderbird you can set the minimum font size, which I have done and it works very nicely. With Maxthon you can control the zoom, but you can't default it. And, although control/scroll does change size in Windows7, I don't think it can be defaulted.