toolbox size when working in high screen resolutions

[Raanan Snir]

Does anybody know - how can you work with Photoshop 6 in high screen resolutions such as 1280X1024 - the interface, and especially the toolbox become so small and not workable. I know how to enlarge the fonts in Windows(2K) but that's naturally not enough.
Thanxc, Raanan.

[Phosphor]

That's just the way interface elements work, at least with all the software I've used.

Outside of items like certain palettes which are expandable, the interface elements are a designed to be a fixed size. For example, say the Toolbox is built to be fixed at 60 pixels wide. By raising the resolution of your monitor display you are, in effect, squeezing that fixed number of pixels into a smaller physical dimension as seen on screen.

Not to sound mean, but if the 1280 X 1024 resolution is what you want, but are having a difficult time using, it sounds like you need better glasses, a larger monitor or an additional monitor just for your palettes.

[Klaas A Visser]

Re aspect ratio and 1280x1024....

Basically all CRT monitors have a *physical* aspect ratio of 4:3 - when PCs
were first created with GUIs and monitor resolutions of 640 by 480, that
resolution was chosen as it also had a 4:3 ratio. As technology grew, so
did resolutions, but for some reason, 1280x1024 was chosen instead of 1280
by 960. There is plenty of dialog in various newsgroups going back to the
mid '90s around this, if you want to have a quick google.

To see for yourself, draw a circle in Illustrator with your desktop set to a
4:3 resolution (anything but 1280x1024), and then view it again after
changing to 1280 to 1024 - it will appear slightly flattened.

--
cheers
Klaas A Visser
Sydney, Australia

[Thee_DarkOverLord]

Im on a 22" running at 1600x1200, I dont seem to have any problem with my pallattes or tool box? ok things are a little smaller but certanly well within workable range?

[Klaas A Visser]

Maybe I should have been a bit more explicit:

Set your desktop to 1280 by 1024. Start Photoshop, and a new document.
Using the Ellipse tool, press Shift and draw your circle. Get a ruler and
hold it up to the screen - it will be wider than it is tall. Thus, although
you have drawn a perfect circle, it is being displayed imperfectly. If you
can mentally translate this visual distortion to reality while working on
your image, then you won't have a problem. I certainly can't handle it, all
the people in my photos look fatter than they should <grin>.

With regards to LCD monitors with a native resolution of 1280 by 1024 -
you're stuck with the distortion unless you change the resolution, which
will have its own set of issues.

--
cheers
Klaas A Visser
Sydney, Australia

[Colin Walls]

Klaas:
I have a [Sony] LCD with a native rez of 1280x1024 and my desktop is set to that value.
When I draw a circle in PS [actually I just tried with PSE], I get just that - a perfect circle.
I tried with a square [easier to measure] and that was fine too.
I created a new doc with equal sides and it was square too.
What gives?

[Thee_DarkOverLord]

screen res and distortion can depend on your grahpics card and drivers (so I have been told)

I have had worries about the distorion before, and have had difenrent results on diferent systems.

[Colin Walls]

And I have learnt to check the squareness of a square in PS whenever I have a different screen to use.

BTW, there are a number of laptops available now with wide screens [like TVs]. I guess these might be good for PS.

[Peter Figen]

"learning the shortcuts is motoric rather than visual"

While this may be true, learning the shortcuts is far more efficient than using a mouse or pen to click on the tool or function you want, leaving you with more time and less carpal tunnel for even more visual creativity.

[ID. Awe]

Fortunately with Matrox cards they have a circle pattern with squares that you can run so that you can be sure that you have circles and square.

It is under Settings/Advanced/Monitor Settings/Adjust Current Display Mode. I use a ruler when adjusting the monitor.

[dave milbut]

Good point to this discussion andrew!

[Gary L]

Small graphic sizes--toolbox, pallets, etc--are becoming a problem with new laptops and the native resolution of their LCD screens. For example, my Dell Inspiration laptop has a native resolution of 1620x1050 (wide screen)which makes the toolbox and other PS graphics almost impossible to use. If I switch to a screen resolution of 1280x800, the graphics become unuseable but, unlike CRT monitors, switching from an LCDs native resolution causes degradation in the quality of the display. The solution is to make the toolbox--and other graphics--size selectable, not a terribly difficult programming task. I assume Adobe is already working on this.

[dave milbut]

not a terribly difficult programming task




"That's what you think!", said the programmer.

[Phosphor]

I have to wonder whether the Quartz rendering engine, which provides for such wonderfully smooth system-level icon resizing (among many other things) under Mac OS X could somehow be tapped to resize palettes in the same way.

Of course, that would leave Windows-users in the dust, which I doubt Adobe would do, since they seem to place a pretty-high priority on cross-platform operational parity.

Still, it's a really intriguing prospect.

EDIT: Do I recall reading that the Windows OS is supposed to incorporate something similar to Quartz when Longhorn evenually bulls its way out of the starting gate? If so, this might then be a possibility.