6 ms·

High-DPI (namely 200+ DPI, aka Retina) text rendering on desktop computers is one of the more impactful hardware developments for programmers in a while. When

High-DPI (namely 200+ DPI, aka Retina) text rendering on desktop computers is one of the more impactful hardware developments for programmers in a while. When you're looking at text all day every day, having every single glyph take a massive step up in fidelity (4x the pixel budget!) is not to be sneezed at.

seanmcdirmid 7y ago
This for sure. I love my iMac 27” 5k simply because how text looks on it so much better than even a 28” 4K. 220 DPI is a magical number
- bloopernova 7y ago
  Interesting, my main screen is 160dpi@27", and I would love to try something at 300dpi@27". It's difficult to figure out how much of a difference a screen is going to make at 160 vs 220 vs 300dpi unless you sit down and just work for a few days.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    160 vs 220 is pretty obvious to me since I’ve experienced that directly. I’m not sure about 300, I’ve never seen one of those even on a laptop before.
  - ahartmetz 7y ago
    Edit: obviously that is only for the resolution... Try looking at any recent smartphone with an at least full-HD display ;) To appreciate just how many pixels there are and how many pixels per glyph, take a screenshot and look at it on a computer monitor. It's kind of surprising.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  Want a bit of pixel shock? Find someone with an original iPhone. I fired mine up a few weeks ago and simply couldn't believe that we used to use screens that low resolution and blurry. My eyes have become spoiled.
  - wodenokoto 7y ago
    And that screen was fairly high-res for its time!
  - frou_dh 7y ago
    That is illustrated very well by the second row here: https://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/ultimate-guide-to-iphone-resolutions https://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/ultimate-guide-to-iphone-r...
jacobush 7y ago
I miss my amber Hercules screen
- aidenn0 7y ago
  My first screen was one as well. Insanely high horizontal resolution for the day too.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  Ashton-Tate's Framework on a green Hercules was my daily driver for a very long time. Multi-tasking (sort of), windows, and the ability to cut-and-paste between applications in a text-only environment years before Microsoft Windows was usable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framework_(office_suite) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framework_(office_suite) Picture: https://winworldpc.com/res/img/spotlight/Famework%201.0%20-%20Edit.png https://winworldpc.com/res/img/spotlight/Famework%201.0%20-%...
  - bitwize 7y ago
    Framework was the tits back in the day. It was basically Emacs for the office. It built on the core concept of a frame the way Emacs built on the buffer -- except frames could contain other frames, which is how Framework composed spreadsheets and documents with multiple subsections. Like Emacs, Framework was programmable in a Lisp-like scripting language called FRED. In fact you could attach FRED macros to any frame, and they would be saved along with your work. All this on an 8088-based PC (or 80186-based Tandy 2000).
- yardshop 7y ago
  I have happy memories of getting a monochrome bitmapped graphics driver working with Turbo Pascal and generating Clifford Pickover's million-point structures on my old amber monitor.
enriquto 7y ago
i tend to prefer low-resolution displays because the battery lasts much longer. Do not really see the point of tiny pixels
- frou_dh 7y ago
  Point is that diminishing returns for great legibility kick in far north of ~100 DPI. Perhaps 330 or 440 is pointless at typical desktop viewing distances, but 220 certainly isn't. I mean, just because ~100 looks okay isn't grounds to get stuck in a rut dictated by what was economical to mass produce in the year 2000s.
anderspitman 7y ago
Agree. I love my 4k monitor, and I think 8k will reach the point where I don't need any higher resolution.
lostgame 7y ago
It has also affected the Print industry in a major way. No longer is there much need to have a 200+ DPI difference between your display and what you’re printing. Gone are the days of zooming way way in to a page-sized PS document - it’s just the size it will be for print. For my girlfriend, this was super important.

seanmcdirmid 7y ago

This for sure. I love my iMac 27” 5k simply because how text looks on it so much better than even a 28” 4K. 220 DPI is a magical number

bloopernova 7y ago
Interesting, my main screen is 160dpi@27", and I would love to try something at 300dpi@27". It's difficult to figure out how much of a difference a screen is going to make at 160 vs 220 vs 300dpi unless you sit down and just work for a few days.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  160 vs 220 is pretty obvious to me since I’ve experienced that directly. I’m not sure about 300, I’ve never seen one of those even on a laptop before.
- ahartmetz 7y ago
  Edit: obviously that is only for the resolution... Try looking at any recent smartphone with an at least full-HD display ;) To appreciate just how many pixels there are and how many pixels per glyph, take a screenshot and look at it on a computer monitor. It's kind of surprising.
reaperducer 7y ago
Want a bit of pixel shock? Find someone with an original iPhone. I fired mine up a few weeks ago and simply couldn't believe that we used to use screens that low resolution and blurry. My eyes have become spoiled.
- wodenokoto 7y ago
  And that screen was fairly high-res for its time!
- frou_dh 7y ago
  That is illustrated very well by the second row here: https://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/ultimate-guide-to-iphone-resolutions https://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/ultimate-guide-to-iphone-r...

jacobush 7y ago

I miss my amber Hercules screen

aidenn0 7y ago
My first screen was one as well. Insanely high horizontal resolution for the day too.
reaperducer 7y ago
Ashton-Tate's Framework on a green Hercules was my daily driver for a very long time. Multi-tasking (sort of), windows, and the ability to cut-and-paste between applications in a text-only environment years before Microsoft Windows was usable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framework_(office_suite) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framework_(office_suite) Picture: https://winworldpc.com/res/img/spotlight/Famework%201.0%20-%20Edit.png https://winworldpc.com/res/img/spotlight/Famework%201.0%20-%...
- bitwize 7y ago
  Framework was the tits back in the day. It was basically Emacs for the office. It built on the core concept of a frame the way Emacs built on the buffer -- except frames could contain other frames, which is how Framework composed spreadsheets and documents with multiple subsections. Like Emacs, Framework was programmable in a Lisp-like scripting language called FRED. In fact you could attach FRED macros to any frame, and they would be saved along with your work. All this on an 8088-based PC (or 80186-based Tandy 2000).
yardshop 7y ago
I have happy memories of getting a monochrome bitmapped graphics driver working with Turbo Pascal and generating Clifford Pickover's million-point structures on my old amber monitor.

enriquto 7y ago

i tend to prefer low-resolution displays because the battery lasts much longer. Do not really see the point of tiny pixels

frou_dh 7y ago
Point is that diminishing returns for great legibility kick in far north of ~100 DPI. Perhaps 330 or 440 is pointless at typical desktop viewing distances, but 220 certainly isn't. I mean, just because ~100 looks okay isn't grounds to get stuck in a rut dictated by what was economical to mass produce in the year 2000s.

anderspitman 7y ago

Agree. I love my 4k monitor, and I think 8k will reach the point where I don't need any higher resolution.

lostgame 7y ago

It has also affected the Print industry in a major way. No longer is there much need to have a 200+ DPI difference between your display and what you’re printing. Gone are the days of zooming way way in to a page-sized PS document - it’s just the size it will be for print. For my girlfriend, this was super important.