The fonts and the pictures are all wrong on my computer

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Right, for some reason this laptop is set to 1400x1050 res, but appears to have been set up to display this as being a thoroughly normal thing. It means that all the pictures on the internet (presumably JPG's) look blurry and blotchy, and the fonts are too ruddy big. I've tried changing resolutions, but all that does is make things look ridiculously big and out of focus. What's going on, and how can I sort it?

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Saturday, 25 September 2004 15:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Ridiculously big and out of focus is the new black.

― Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 25 September 2004 16:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah. Have downloaded drivers etc. It is still a whole world of ugly.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Sunday, 26 September 2004 16:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Many new laptops with widescreen orientation use a resolution of 1400x1050, so that's not so odd. Two things you may want to check, if you're using XP:

1) check to see font size is set to normal"
-right click the desktop and select "properties"
-click the "appearance" tab, and then check the Font Size option is "normal" and not "large" or "extra large".

2) check to see you're not set to have ClearType on
- from the same menu as above click "effects"
- the second option is "use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts"; either select "standard" instead of ClearType, or uncheck it altogether

Failing those:
If it's just doing this in your browser, maybe you've boosted the font size using control and the scroll wheel or something. (if you have a scroll wheel or the equivalent section of the touchpad that functions like a scroll wheel). Internet Explorer scales this well usually, but sometimes Firefox makes things look really terrible. if you hold down the control button and then brush your finger up along the right-hand side of the touchpad and your screen fonts start looking better (or worse), adjust until you're happy.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Sunday, 26 September 2004 17:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Nope, none of them. The JPEG's still look horrid, the fonts were already at normal... I'm really quite baffled.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Sunday, 26 September 2004 17:19 (twenty-one years ago)

What make and model of computer is it?

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 27 September 2004 12:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Are you using Internet Explorer?

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Monday, 27 September 2004 12:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Sounds like your colour depth is set low, right click the desktop properties -> settings -> colour quality (if XP) it should be set to 32bit.

1400x1050 is a 4:3 non widescreen standard resolution for high res laptop tfts, dont use any other res as it will look garbage on the tft.

Maybe if you take a screenshot (print screen and paste into paint) and email to me or host if you can we can work it out.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Monday, 27 September 2004 13:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, that's a good point; 1400x1050 is standard, not widescreen (I should have done the math in my head). That's partly why I asked what make and model, because then we could figure out what the resolution is SUPPOSED to be, in case 1400x1050 is not correct.

In general, if you try to select a resolution that your notebook screen doesn't support, it won't even give you the option, but I've seen some cases where it allows you to set the resolution to something much higher than the pixel count on the monitor, and it just fuzzes everything out.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 27 September 2004 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

LCDs will look crap if set to anything other than their native resoloution. What that is I don't know, but it will be the one non-blurry setting in your Display control panel under the Settings Tab.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 27 September 2004 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Usually the handling of resolutions above native is a scrollable desktop, i've never seen it fuzz up but I suppose that that could happen.

Yeah post the make/model so we can tell what res you are supposed to be using.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Monday, 27 September 2004 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

It sounds like he's below native.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 27 September 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

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The fonts and the pictures are all wrong on my computer - help?