From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs Subject: bug#4547: a bug: emacs 23.1: very large font Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:45:19 -0500 Message-ID: References: <4B026D75.30109@swipnet.se> Reply-To: Stefan Monnier , 4547@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1258467810 7152 80.91.229.12 (17 Nov 2009 14:23:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:23:30 +0000 (UTC) Cc: 4547@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com To: Jan =?UTF-8?Q?Dj=C3=A4rv?= Original-X-From: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Nov 17 15:23:22 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1NAOxl-0003vL-EH for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:23:21 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:55765 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1NAOxk-0000QM-Cj for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:23:20 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1NAOiO-00012o-FL for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:07:28 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1NAOiJ-0000zw-Q5 for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:07:27 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=58022 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1NAOiJ-0000zc-FP for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:07:23 -0500 Original-Received: from rzlab.ucr.edu ([138.23.92.77]:33201) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1NAOiI-0001Wd-Rq for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:07:23 -0500 Original-Received: from rzlab.ucr.edu (rzlab.ucr.edu [127.0.0.1]) by rzlab.ucr.edu (8.14.3/8.14.3/Debian-5) with ESMTP id nAHE7Ktd008873; Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:07:20 -0800 Original-Received: (from debbugs@localhost) by rzlab.ucr.edu (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id nAHDt6DW007066; Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:55:06 -0800 Resent-Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:55:06 -0800 X-Loop: owner@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com Resent-From: Stefan Monnier Resent-To: bug-submit-list@donarmstrong.com Resent-CC: Emacs Bugs 2Resent-Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:55:06 +0000 Resent-Message-ID: Resent-Sender: owner@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com X-Emacs-PR-Message: followup 4547 X-Emacs-PR-Package: emacs X-Emacs-PR-Keywords: notabug Original-Received: via spool by 4547-submit@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com id=B4547.12584655306295 (code B ref 4547); Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:55:06 +0000 Original-Received: (at 4547) by emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com; 17 Nov 2009 13:45:30 +0000 X-Spam-Bayes: score:0.5 Bayes not run. spammytokens:Tokens not available. hammytokens:Tokens not available. Original-Received: from ironport2-out.pppoe.ca (ironport2-out.teksavvy.com [206.248.154.181]) by rzlab.ucr.edu (8.14.3/8.14.3/Debian-5) with ESMTP id nAHDjS6I006291 for <4547@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com>; Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:45:29 -0800 X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: ApsEACM4AkvO+II8/2dsb2JhbACBS9VThDsEiT4 X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.44,758,1249272000"; d="scan'208";a="49530269" Original-Received: from 206-248-130-60.dsl.teksavvy.com (HELO pastel.home) ([206.248.130.60]) by ironport2-out.pppoe.ca with ESMTP; 17 Nov 2009 08:45:19 -0500 Original-Received: by pastel.home (Postfix, from userid 20848) id 1C6728173; Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:45:19 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <4B026D75.30109@swipnet.se> ("Jan =?UTF-8?Q?Dj=C3=A4rv"'s?= message of "Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:31:33 +0100") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 2) Resent-Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:07:27 -0500 X-BeenThere: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.bugs:32666 Archived-At: > While not technically a bug, it is unfortunate that Emacs uses a DPI value > other than the rest of the applications. The main problem I see is that Emacs tries to choose a default font such that it will always have the same physical screen size. This seemed like a good idea at some point in time, but experience shows that with higher DPIs, the smoother curves of letters makes the text more legible at the same physical display size, so people are happy to use slightly smaller fonts (in other words, small fonts used to be illegible not just because they were physically small but also because there weren't enough pixels to make them legible). So choosing a fixed physical size is not really a good idea. Another reason why this is, is that what "really" matters is not the dimension of text on the physical screen, but the "apparent size" seen from the user, which is approximately "screen-size / distance-from-the-eye". And it turns out that the distance between the eye and the screen depends on the device being used. For all these reasons, the real physical DPI is not an ideal basis to choose the default font size. So using some kind of user-controlled "perceived DPI" would be a much better choice. IIUC the DPI provided by Xsettings is a good choice for that. Stefan