Aging eyes, and prefer larger text while working? What display options are available?
Windows handles font display and sizing based on your display settings, but their actual size depends on a combination of items, but primarily your resolution and dpi settings in Windows on your particular physical screen size. Although not yet perfected, Windows does allow some adjustments, and 3D has a quick option that may be helpful.
3D COMMENT OPTIONS
To just make narrative text comment text a little larger, if everything else is sized OK:
- In the report writer, click Preferences > Preferences.
- Select the Accessibility tab.
- Enable “Use large fonts for narrative text”.
- Click OK when done. The option makes the font for the report writer field contents- your inspection comments themselves- display larger. Other program items are unaffected.
Another tip: Touch screens may benefit from more space between narrative menus items for “fat finger” use; Enable the other Accessibility option “Display extra space between narratives”. Or a stylus may help.
Large narrative font in 3D not large enough? Or you wish to enlarge everything, not just comment text? Balance your Windows options for that.
WINDOWS SETTINGS
Access your settings to balance Scaling and Resolution:
- In Windows select Start > Settings > System > Display. (or right-click a blank place on your desktop and choose Display Settings)
- To adjust the scaled size of your text and apps, choose options from the drop-down menu next to Scale.
- If Scale is not set to 100% you may wish to change to that. Some have found 125% works well on many devices. Apply and restart Windows or log off and back in.
- If items are too small at 100%, consider lowering your Display Resolution setting to make everything larger. Note that after changing resolution sometimes Windows adjusts scaling as well so you may have to check and reset that item again afterward and restart Windows again to see the final results. To change your screen resolution to make everything smaller or larger, use the drop-down menu next to Display resolution. (see below)
See also
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-adjust-display-scale-settings-windows-11
https://www.simplified.guide/microsoft-windows/display-scale
WHY ADJUSTMENTS?
Windows or a computer manufacturer may default to a larger scaling percentage, or dpi/ppi setting, on higher resolution screens to compensate for the high resolution making everything much smaller overall. More than 100% scaling however can result in unevenly sized items and elements, or some item labels not properly fitting buttons or windows, especially where 3D and other programs, including some produced by Microsoft, were optimized for normal 100% DPI, or normal one to one scaling. Alternate DPI scaling can cause other general issues when using remote desktop, or additional or external monitors. To avoid these issues, we recommend setting your dpi to 100% (or at most 125%) and instead lowering your screen resolution (see next section) to make everything larger.
But higher resolution is best, right? Not always. It depends on the context. If you want to cram as many items as possible, many windows, items, or programs on your screen at once as possible, then higher resolution make that possible as it makes everything smaller to fit. Conversely lowering the resolution setting allows more or “larger” pixels to display the same items, thus making them appear bigger to the eye, although fewer items might fit on the screen at once. The physical size and pixel arrangement of a given screen can also affect appearance.
A lower screen resolution results in larger and easier to see items, whereas a higher resolution makes things smaller so that more fits on the screen at once. Other Windows Personalization settings or adjustments (like ClearType) might further allow your a particular resolution to work better on your screen.
You may even be able to save money by obtaining a laptop already optimized to use a lower “native” resolution to begin with, while also benefiting from its naturally larger items.
Balance these settings to acheive the best results for you. For instance, some Surface Pro users have reported good results by first adjusting the resolution down two notches on the list, and then adjusting the DPI setting to 125%, so you might give that a try.
More technical information or possible archival suggestions for those who are interested, since Microsoft has continued to make further tweaks that affect display in every windows iteration:
Starting with Surface Pro and Windows 8 devices, Microsoft set a trend of using abnormally high dpi scaling to compensate for extra high screen resolution designed to benefit newer “tile” apps they were introducing and most manufacturers followed suit for marketing hype of higher resolution screens.
(e.g. Microsoft explained the original Surface Pro was 212 DPI but used a 150% default scaling factor because its native resolution of 1920×1080 would shrink to a logical resolution of 960×640 if a 200% scaling factor were used, and that was below the minimum resolution of 1024×720, so the scaling factor steps down to the next lower plateau of 150%. They also used a strategy called DPI virtualization to automatically scale some applications, but admit that Virtualization is not able to solve all issues for some legacy type programs. Since then newer versions of Windows handle scaling and resolution differently, as well as larger screens with even higher resolution and dpi scaling default settings released).
As a result, the screen settings as such devices come may be practically too small for legacy programs to be useable. Fortunately some adjustments can help.
Devices and preferences vary, but a combination of these options may prove helpful:
– Access windows Control Panel, Appearance and Personalization, Display options. Depending on your version of Windows, you might try turning on the option “Let me choose one scaling option for all my displays” and set it to Smaller 100%, which is the normal 1:1 ratio setting, or at least something in between the current setting and 100%. Or use the slider called “Change the size of text, apps, and other items” to adjust that setting. You will need to press OK or Apply, then log out/sign out of windows and back in (or you could restart the computer), otherwise the changes will not take effect.
This will help your items display more closely to the way the were designed, including a little more spacing between Actions to make them more finger-friendly.
– Next you may find everything is smaller then you like, and this can be solved by lowering your regular screen resolution setting to make everything larger, rather then using a different scaling option.
Return to the Display Settings in windows, scroll down and click on “Advanced display settings”. Use the menu where it shows the current resolution to select another option. You may want to use a lower resolution that uses the same aspect ratio as the recommended one. As you select the options, notice how the shape of the screen example changes, and pick one that is similar to the shape of the recommended one. On really new devices with high resolution options, you may find that one three or four down in the list proves to be best.
Again apply the change, and log off and back onto Windows to see the results.
– Once your basic 3D screen items and Actions are at a useable state, a few final adjustments will help: In report writer Preferences > Preferences, use the Accessibility tab to “Use large fonts for narrative text” and “Display extra space between narratives” to make your comment menu spread out a little more for easier selection.
– You may find that a slightly different combination of the above items works best for your needs and device. Lowering the resolution or dpi setting may improve things for legacy apps, but may also make the start screen tiles area smaller. If you predominately use legacy programs then such options might work pretty well. But if you predominately use Tiles apps, the results may be less desirable there. So a trade off might be in order, depending on what you use most.
Note that some have reported on some Surface devices that 125% DPI and 1680×1050 resolution combo worked perfectly, after pending Windows Updates had been applied and the computer rebooted after the display settings were adjusted (Windows doesn’t apply all display setting adjustments until after a reboot, or items may appear very wonky beforehand).
