-Regardless of whether I'm using ClearType or not it's practically illegible at 1600x1200 simply because it's such a small font.
-If I lower the resolution to 800x600, it's more legible but obviously distorted.
-ClearType helps a bit due to better font smoothing, but since I'm using a CRT it's not that much of an improvement. Usually I have ClearType turned off to avoid the effect of colored edges.
I suggest using a larger font size - or at the very least, a font that renders better at small sizes.
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Yeah, you'll need a CRT to really see what I'm talking about. The pixels of CRTs are very different from LCDs.
An LCD has well-defined and individually addressable pixels that ClearType takes full advantage of. The position of every pixel is known and can be directly changed. The pixels on a CRT, on the other hand, are determined by where the the electron gun happens to hit - which does not necessarily equate to an individual phosphor element on the screen. Since the OS cannot guarantee the exact phosphor that will be lit (and indeed, often several phosphors are lit for a single "pixel"), the result is very different on a CRT, and most of the benefits of ClearType are lost.
In addition, the LCD pixels are much sharper than CRT pixels - which is again due to the difference between the individually addressable LCD pixels and the CRT's phosphors.
In any case - take a close look as the "Without ClearType" image - the letters are a mere 7 or so pixels tall. The "w" in "Away" is very light grey, while the "a" is very dark. The normal hinting that usually takes place seems to be failing.
In the ClearType tuner, I think I'm the upper left box. Usually I have ClearType turned off, though, since I'm on a CRT. Standard antialiasing usually works better with CRTs.
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I believe "Usable for everyone" is the mantra, or if you prefer "not unusable for anyone". The first rule in UI design is forget about yourself and how it looks to you, because you don't matter...
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The status message has been there for a very long time, and this is the first time (that I know of) someone say it's unreadable. I know some people want to make the default font small enough to be barely readable so they can cram as much stuff on screen as possible, but there's simply no way to cater for those people.
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Hey, just noticed in the new version of GAIM: The small, grey font used to show the status of the users is hard to read.
Take a look:
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/8151/smallawayws2.png
-Regardless of whether I'm using ClearType or not it's practically illegible at 1600x1200 simply because it's such a small font.
-If I lower the resolution to 800x600, it's more legible but obviously distorted.
-ClearType helps a bit due to better font smoothing, but since I'm using a CRT it's not that much of an improvement. Usually I have ClearType turned off to avoid the effect of colored edges.
I suggest using a larger font size - or at the very least, a font that renders better at small sizes.
choosing when there are six boxes?
I tried recreating your issue but the max resolution I have is 1280 x 1024 on an LCD and it looks fine, so I'm just curious...
Yeah, you'll need a CRT to really see what I'm talking about. The pixels of CRTs are very different from LCDs.
An LCD has well-defined and individually addressable pixels that ClearType takes full advantage of. The position of every pixel is known and can be directly changed. The pixels on a CRT, on the other hand, are determined by where the the electron gun happens to hit - which does not necessarily equate to an individual phosphor element on the screen. Since the OS cannot guarantee the exact phosphor that will be lit (and indeed, often several phosphors are lit for a single "pixel"), the result is very different on a CRT, and most of the benefits of ClearType are lost.
In addition, the LCD pixels are much sharper than CRT pixels - which is again due to the difference between the individually addressable LCD pixels and the CRT's phosphors.
In any case - take a close look as the "Without ClearType" image - the letters are a mere 7 or so pixels tall. The "w" in "Away" is very light grey, while the "a" is very dark. The normal hinting that usually takes place seems to be failing.
In the ClearType tuner, I think I'm the upper left box. Usually I have ClearType turned off, though, since I'm on a CRT. Standard antialiasing usually works better with CRTs.
I believe the font size is relative to your current font size, so if you want it to be bigger, just increase your gtk font size.
The font is also the default gtk font.
I have never changed my default GTK font, nor should I be forced to do so. The UI should be usable by default.
Usable for who? It's usable for me.
Usable for people with vision problems or with high resolution monitors. In any case, that font seems too small and poorly rendered by any standard.
Pidgin doesn't do any font rendering itself
I believe "Usable for everyone" is the mantra, or if you prefer "not unusable for anyone". The first rule in UI design is forget about yourself and how it looks to you, because you don't matter...
The status message has been there for a very long time, and this is the first time (that I know of) someone say it's unreadable. I know some people want to make the default font small enough to be barely readable so they can cram as much stuff on screen as possible, but there's simply no way to cater for those people.