4 ms·

Just set font scaling to 1.3x or whatever it is you need and everything works great. I've been doing that for many years for 1440p in a laptop. Ubuntu actually

Just set font scaling to 1.3x or whatever it is you need and everything works great. I've been doing that for many years for 1440p in a laptop. Ubuntu actually regressed there since switching back to GNOME from Unity. In Unity font scaling was neatly exposed in the same slider as integer scaling and all apps used that setting. Now I have to set one thing for GNOME and another for Firefox to get the same effect. "Proper" fractional scaling is a waste of resources in most situations. It's only really worth it if you want really consistent sizing of things when you have several screens with very different DPIs.

pantalaimon 7y ago
Unity still exists, it got renamed to Lomiri - you should still be able to install that. So maybe that feature still works.
- pedrocr 7y ago
  I've switched to sway now and have that done manually like many other things to make them "just right". I just meant that the default Ubuntu desktop regressed on that from the Unity to GNOME switch. It was one of the things that I thought Unity had done particularly well within the constraints of what the software could do but very few people seem to know about it. I've explained how to get font scaling to dozens of people online to fix their issues. For most people it's just a much better solution than the much awaited fractional scaling.
  - pantalaimon 7y ago
    > I just meant that the default Ubuntu desktop regressed on that from the Unity to GNOME switch. I already felt like that with the switch from Gnome 2 to Unity. I switched to Mate as a result.
Tenoke 7y ago
As someone who uses Ubuntu on multiple machines, does this and uses a high DPI laptop display AND an external display, this only sort of works and the outcome is much worse than what Windows or MacOS do out of the box. Honestly, I don't get how the Ubuntu ecosystem is so much worse at handling something so basic, when other OSes have had almost no issues with it for over a decade..
- pedrocr 7y ago
  I use external screens just fine. I can't even think of a situation that's a big issue: - 4K laptop screen and 1080p external, just use integer scaling - 1440p laptop screen and 1080p external, use 1.3x font scaling and everything looks fine I currently have a 1440p laptop, a 4K external, and a 1280x800 projector in my work-from-home setup. The external screen replaced a 1200p one before. I use sway that supports fractional scaling per screen in whatever setup I want. And yet I prefer to just set 1.3x font scaling for everything and not touch the scaling at all. Everything looks great. Fractional scaling is a missing feature for some people and Linux desktops are definitely behind. But compared to font scaling I don't see how it's really much more than a little bump in functionality (some controls sized a little better) for a big drop in performance (calculating >2x the pixels in a lot of situations) and even some loss of sharpness. It's probably a huge preference thing. I've seen people online waiting impatiently for fractional scaling because things were too small in their 1080p laptop screen otherwise. Even though 1080p on a laptop is sort of the definition of 1x.
  - e12e 7y ago
    > I use sway that supports fractional scaling per screen in whatever setup I want. So not x11/xorg, but Wayland? I recently switched from xorg/i3 to wayland/gnome on 18.04 - and while I miss the tiling, external screens behave a bit better. I'll probably try sway/Wayland when I have the time to upgrade to 20.04. > And yet I prefer to just set 1.3x font scaling for everything and not touch the scaling at all. Doesn't fonts end up too big on a typical 21" 1080p display?
josteink 7y ago
> It's only really worth it if you want really consistent sizing of things when you have several screens with very different DPIs. So useful for all laptop-users with an external monitor then.

pantalaimon 7y ago

Unity still exists, it got renamed to Lomiri - you should still be able to install that. So maybe that feature still works.

pedrocr 7y ago
I've switched to sway now and have that done manually like many other things to make them "just right". I just meant that the default Ubuntu desktop regressed on that from the Unity to GNOME switch. It was one of the things that I thought Unity had done particularly well within the constraints of what the software could do but very few people seem to know about it. I've explained how to get font scaling to dozens of people online to fix their issues. For most people it's just a much better solution than the much awaited fractional scaling.
- pantalaimon 7y ago
  > I just meant that the default Ubuntu desktop regressed on that from the Unity to GNOME switch. I already felt like that with the switch from Gnome 2 to Unity. I switched to Mate as a result.

Tenoke 7y ago

As someone who uses Ubuntu on multiple machines, does this and uses a high DPI laptop display AND an external display, this only sort of works and the outcome is much worse than what Windows or MacOS do out of the box. Honestly, I don't get how the Ubuntu ecosystem is so much worse at handling something so basic, when other OSes have had almost no issues with it for over a decade..

pedrocr 7y ago
I use external screens just fine. I can't even think of a situation that's a big issue: - 4K laptop screen and 1080p external, just use integer scaling - 1440p laptop screen and 1080p external, use 1.3x font scaling and everything looks fine I currently have a 1440p laptop, a 4K external, and a 1280x800 projector in my work-from-home setup. The external screen replaced a 1200p one before. I use sway that supports fractional scaling per screen in whatever setup I want. And yet I prefer to just set 1.3x font scaling for everything and not touch the scaling at all. Everything looks great. Fractional scaling is a missing feature for some people and Linux desktops are definitely behind. But compared to font scaling I don't see how it's really much more than a little bump in functionality (some controls sized a little better) for a big drop in performance (calculating >2x the pixels in a lot of situations) and even some loss of sharpness. It's probably a huge preference thing. I've seen people online waiting impatiently for fractional scaling because things were too small in their 1080p laptop screen otherwise. Even though 1080p on a laptop is sort of the definition of 1x.
- e12e 7y ago
  > I use sway that supports fractional scaling per screen in whatever setup I want. So not x11/xorg, but Wayland? I recently switched from xorg/i3 to wayland/gnome on 18.04 - and while I miss the tiling, external screens behave a bit better. I'll probably try sway/Wayland when I have the time to upgrade to 20.04. > And yet I prefer to just set 1.3x font scaling for everything and not touch the scaling at all. Doesn't fonts end up too big on a typical 21" 1080p display?

josteink 7y ago

> It's only really worth it if you want really consistent sizing of things when you have several screens with very different DPIs. So useful for all laptop-users with an external monitor then.