Comments on: Does the 27-Inch iMac Display Push Mainstream Dot-Pitch Tolerance?

By: #287 Quicktime 7 Install Trick, SleepyTunes, 27 inch iMac is Bad, Macs at Work « Nosillacast

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 03:51:24 +0000

[...] technical review suggests the 27′s resolution is a resolution too far for human eyes. stationstops.com. Can it get worse? Oh, yes it can. The acre of shiny black glass reflected everything in my messy [...]

By: Chris (Admin)

Chris (Admin) — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 01:01:03 +0000

Josh,

Its almost not even worth it, because the web is completely oblivious to this anyway, as are Java, Flash, and AIR apps.

Its really the case where in order to see things the way they were meant to look, you really need to just ‘deal’ with the dot pitch.

As I have a 27″ iMac now, I am starting to realize why resolutions > 1920×1200 are not terribly popular for general use.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:06:06 +0000

The problem is not the high resolution of the display, but the lack of resolution independence in MacOS. In Windows, you can configure the DPI settings of your display, and everything will be scaled accordingly. For instance, a 9pt font will always be displayed at its print size, but a high res display will render it crisper.

MacOS was at one time meant to be resolution independent, too, but the support for that is severely broken under the hood, so you don’t get a setting for it. Tinkertool is only a very partial solution, because it does not affect the size of interface elements, and larger fonts will just flow out of their frames.

There is probably not going to be a solution for this anytime soon, because Apple would need to rewrite Finder, Mail, iTunes and so on (which they can easily do), and because Apple would need to ask third party developers to rewrite their interfaces for the next OS release (which would need to be done half a year in advance or so).

By: smudger

smudger — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:33:03 +0000

I agree. To zoom in has disadvantages and I usually reduce the resolution, which defeats the object. MAC should allow System fonts to be adjusted. How come none of their testers noticed the problem?

By: Fred

Fred — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:14:58 +0000

I really cannot accept the comment

‘Well, yes, but the tradeoff is that interface elements start to get really tiny and difficult to read- especially text, and especially for users over age 40.’

Small dots give smaller granularity and therefore greater flexibility, although with OS X you some something like TinkerTool to change interface element font size.

However I agree with the sentiment about glossy screens, what is driving this trend ?, it’s surel not the users.

The only good thing is my glossy iPhone screen is that it forced me to buy Anti-Glare Film which has stopped many a scratch; hopefully these inexpensive Anti-Glare films will become available for larger screens.