|
I hope someone can help on this (and
Hi, Jon Pareles!)
My new flat-panel monitor has
terrible resolution for print. The video and graphics work fine, but
text is difficult to read in Windows and even worse in Xywrite, where the
widescreen seems to pull the letters till they're fat and fuzzy and, regardless
of adjustments in brightness etc., dull.
Some
specs:
I'm using Xywrite III Plus, version
3.56.
My computer is the horrid Windows ME
(Dell Dimension 1400), which I keep solely for Xywrite.
The monitor I just retired came with
the ME and the screen is 13" wide, 9 1/2" high, and 16" diagonal.
The new monitor is a Dell 1908WFP,
16" wide, 10" high, 19" diagonal.
Windows problems: Except for
most headlines and subheads, the letters themselves aren't quite solid;
sometimes I'll get a thin "t," a word later, a thicker "t." The same word
may contain both wispy and solid letters. Some letters blur, though they'll
be unblurry a line away. The words in the address bar are harder to read, and
when highlighted, in reverse type, still harder. They and the black-on-gray
letters at the top of an email (those that spell "Edit," "Format," etc.)
sometimes come with little halos, and when they don't, the letters tend to
blur, the black of the letter spilling into the white of the
halo, resulting in dark gray fuzz.
The screen slumps in the middle,
most at the top, where the straight lines and bars make the
sagging more apparent. This occurs on websites, email, and
Xywrite.
Xywrite problems:
The letters are too fat
and blurry. I expect them to be larger, but as I said, the widescreen seems
to bloat them. Also, the command field and about the top 10th of the
screen are darker than the rest.
My previous monitor handled Xywrite
beautifully: I bought a new one only because the tiny
type on Windows was straining my eyes. By comparison, the
old monitor's white-on-black screen was a relief. Now, the new monitor
is a strain in both Win and Xy. Fiddling while eyes burn:
Both on Xy and Win, I've fiddled
with brightness, contrast, sharpness, pixels, and "phase" (though the online
manual doesn't explain what that is). While some combinations of those seem to
improve Windows' resolution, it's not quite enough. No combination of
adjustments improves the type on Xywrite. (Well, lowering the pixels is better
than expanding them.)
On "Display Properties," I have the
color set at Tru Color (32 bit) and the Screen Area at 1280 by 800 pixels. The
online instructions advise 1400 x 900 pixels, but my computer doesn't
get there. Again, I've tried different combos of pixels and color, but
these two are the best.
So what to do? More adjustments? Are
there adjustments within Xywrite I should try? (Please be aware, if
you aren't by now, I'm not tech savvy.) Is the widescreen and/or LCD the
problem, and should I try to find a square and/or CRT monitor instead? Do
they even make 'em square anymore? I purchased this thing from Staples less
than 30 days ago, and so a return or exchange is possible.
Any advice is most
welcome.
Thanks!
Leslie
|