HiDPI on Linux: The displays υψηλής ανάλυσης με υψηλές πυκνότητες εικονοστοιχείων (pixels) φαίνονται καταπληκτικές σε σύγκριση με τις συμβατικές οθόνες. Το μεγάλο πρόβλημα για τους users of PCs is that many of the software they use are not designed for this level of pixel density.
For example, if you are using GNOME 3 on Linux, your first contact with the screen will make you look for your glasses. (Windows faces similar problems with high DPI screens.)
Below we will see what we can do, but at first we need to understand the problem:
Have you ever wondered why the screen Retina Apple's looks so intense? It's simple: because it has a lot more pixels in every inch of it screen from a standard screen. This is called high pixel-per-inch (ppi) density or high pixel density. Pixels per inch are often used interchangeably with dots per inch (dpi), although there is a difference between two. Displays with a high ppi value are often referred to as HiDPI, (high density, high resolution, or in Apple's terminology, Retina).
In the past, if you wanted more pixels, you usually had to buy a larger screen because of screen technology limitations. As a result, many softwares are programmed for a relatively low pixel density. If now this software, used on a HiDPI screen, will open in a 1.024 pixel width window, as it always did.
This creates problems on screens with denser pixels. Let's take for example a 15-inch screen that has a surface area of 13,3 inches. On this display, the 1.024-pixel window will appear 6,18 inches wide with a screen resolution of 1920x1080 (165,63 ppi).
It should be noted that no Linux desktop environment offers real support (fractional scaling) for HiPI screens. In Gnome an attempt has been made by 3.26.
Το Gnome φαίνεται να κάνει αρκετά καλό scaling. Υπάρχουν δύο ρυθμίσεις. Η μία ρύθμιση είναι η "Κλιμάκωση παραθύρων" ή Window scaling. Ορίζει το μέγεθος, αλλά μπορείτε να χρησιμοποιήσετε μόνο ακέραιους αριθμούς (1, 2, 3). Εάν η οθόνη σας έχει τη σωστή ανάλυση, όλα καλά. Ωστόσο, αν έχετε κάποια οθόνη WQHD και χρησιμοποιήσετε το "2" για παράδειγμα τα πάντα θα γίνουν τεράστια. Στην τιμή του "1", δεν αλλάζουν παράθυρα, γραφικά, και icons.
The other setting is the "Scaling factor". It works mainly for fonts, but also works for Firefox, Thunderbird and others. Both of the above settings are in the gnome-tweak tool. The module works exactly the same way (also based on GTK3).
KDE is also very good for scaling. You will need to set the DPI to scaling the text and some other items.
MATE does not scaling, as does XFCE4.
The best DEs are GNOME and Budgie-desktop for scaling 4K. KDE is very good if you have time to set it up.
Sources (read more)
- Archlinux Wiki on HIDPI
- GNOME Fractional (and multi-monitor) Scaling Hackfest, the report
- Almost perfect HIDPI experience on Linux (Xorg)
