Question for big monitor owners

[dpick]

Hi:

I just stepped up to a 22" monitor which I run in 1600x1200 resolution. I love this size and settings, but I do have a couple of questions.

In Photoshop, the font size for dialog boxes, pallets, tool options, and browser are very tiny. Is there a way to make them larger (I've already made my dpi setting in display properties 150)? Also, the thumbnails in the brower are small even when viewed at the largest setting, is there another way to make them bigger?

Thanks for any suggestions.

(Obviously, the programmers at Adobe don't wear bifocals yet, eh Chris?)

[YrbkMgr]

Obviously, the programmers at Adobe don't wear bifocals yet, eh Chris?




Heck no. Chris isn't old enough to remember Betamax (yes, I read that Chris <grin>).

[Lawrence Hudetz]

What's Betamax? ;-)

[Eric Purkalitis]

You can change the text size on things like your menu items and dialog boxes. I don't think you can change things within photoshop, like the palette tab text size.

I've got a 21" and a 19". I fiddled with them when I first got the big monitor, now I just leave it alone. I'm used to the size. However, it does drive some people batty.

[Burton Ogden]

dpick,

My ATI graphics card driver has an option for font size under Display Properties, Settings tab, Advanced... which opens the Rage Fury Properties dialog on which you can choose Small Fonts, Large Fonts, and Other...

The Other selection opens a dialog on which you can specify a percentage larger than 100% or smaller than 100%.

Selecting Large Fonts makes text larger but in some cases that causes the text to be truncated. I am currently using the Small Fonts option.

-- Burton --

[dpick]

Thanks for the replies. I've tried all the appearance settings in my display prefs. Many features can be diddled such as fonts sizes for menus and icon sizes, but I am unable to change font sizes imbedded in programs. I was just wondering if some of the skilled Photoshop users with large monitors knew of some way to make the fonts larger.

You think with the amount of large monitors in use for graphics programs this issue would have been considered (I was only half kidding about young programmers not needing to worry about this issue). I can see it now, Photoshop 8.5, Large Print Edition.

Getting older is everything they warned you about...

[Neil Keller]

dpick,

If I understand what you are saying, this is not a function of monitor screen size; it is a function of monitor resolution.

If the type is not configurable; if it is part of a fixed menu or dialog box, if it is created as a graphic, or if it is otherwise embedded, it is likely that the only way to change its size is to change your monitor resolution. 1600x1200 in a 22" monitor should not make this type unreasonably small. But if you need to or want to see it larger, reduce the resolution to another setting that your monitor and video card support. You should be looking for a setting that gives you the equivalent of 72 or 96 ppi onscreen. Of course as this will enlarge everything, and some of the benefit of a larger monitor at high resolution is sacrificed.

Neil

[dpick]

Thanks for the reply, Neil. You have the understanding of the problem. With my old 19" monitor, there was no problem when running things at 1280x1024. With my 22" the recommended resolution is 1600x1200. This makes some fonts on Photoshop about 1/16th of inch in size (the small case letters). Sitting back a couple of feet, this is tiny for me. As you stated, I could change the resolution to 1280x1024, but that would partially defeat the benefit of the larger monitor.

I never realized some fonts are rendered as graphics so this makes sense that they cannont be changed. I'm sure I can live with the "small" inconvenience of a big monitor. It's amazing to see how much more I can have on screen with the bigger size.

[Neil Keller]

dpick,

Or set up a second monitor (and video card, if needed); set it side-by-side with the 22" monitor, and configure your computer to continue your desktop, panorama fashion (not mirroring). You could maintain the 1600x1200 resolution on the 22", and set the other monitor for a lesser resolution, and stick all your palettes and secondary windows there.

Neil

[Rick Moore]

dpick, there is a way but you may not like it. If you rename the
photoshop.fon file (in the main Photoshop directory) to photoshop.old, you
will get a larger font in the Photoshop dialog boxes but there will also be
an error message every time Photoshop opens. I think it is Tahoma and it may
be only available on XP with Cleartype enabled. If I remember correctly I
tried copying the Tahoma font file into the directory, renamed the file to
photoshop.fon and it stopped the error message but the dialog fonts were
small again. There is another font in the Required directory called
ADMUI3.fon that Photoshop also uses, but honestly, after experimenting I
just got use to the teeny fonts.