# Questions about DPI **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2003, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-dpi/147488 "2003-01-09T09:05:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markside](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Markside](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markside)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-dpi/147488/1 "2003-01-09T09:05:44Z")
I like running a resolution of 1024x768, but text and images seem a little fuzzy to me. So, I increase the dpi setting from 96 to 120. Nearly everything looks crisper, but I’ve noticed that some icons (particularly quick launch icons) look distorted. First, what causes this to happen? Some icons are distorted, and some aren’t. Second, is there a way to make those icons look normal under the higher dip setting? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-dpi/147488/2 "2003-01-09T10:25:24Z")
DPI setting where? What OS are you using? What type of VDU? (flat screen?) ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-dpi/147488/3 "2003-01-09T12:08:04Z")
You might back off on the refresh rate of your graphic card. 70 to 75 Hertz should be high enough. Some graphic cards allow wild ass settings of up to 100 Hertz (sometimes more.) Usually, however, the analog parts of the card and the monitor aren’t up to the high frequency signals that get generated, so the flanks of the signals flatten out and cause the fuzziness you see. Setting the refresh rate to 70 or so reduces the band width to something the monitor can handle and the fuzziness goes away. Don’t set the refresh rate below 70, though. Below that most people start to see flicker, which can make it a strain to read the screen. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-dpi/147488/4 "2003-01-09T12:14:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mangetout \* > \*\*DPI setting where? > What OS are you using? > \*\* He’s probably using some Windows version. In the properties of the display, you can select the font size used on screen. The options there (96 DPI and 120 DPI) match what Markside mentions. It just makes the fonts a tad larger (125% of the standard setting of 96 DPI) on screen - which makes them look (by comparison) somewhat sharper. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-dpi/147488/5 "2003-01-09T12:19:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Markside \* > \*\*First, what causes this to happen? Some icons are distorted, and some aren’t. Second, is there a way to make those icons look normal under the higher dip setting? \*\* The icons are getting distoted because they are sized for 96 DPI. Windows scales them up for 120 DPI, and then has to scale them down again to put them in the quick launch bar. Some (but as you’ve seen) not nearly all programs include icons that work well for the 120 DPI setting. Your best bet is to reduce your font size back to the 96 DPI setting and adjust the refresh rate. I think you will get much better results that way. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-dpi/147488/6 "2003-01-09T12:26:35Z")
The reason I was curious about the OS is that if it’s XP, the native icons are different (they are anti-aliased, and they take scaling better than pre-XP icons, of which there will also be some on his system if he has installed any pre-XP apps) ---
**Author:** ![Popup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@Popup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Popup)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-dpi/147488/7 "2003-01-09T12:57:07Z")
Just for the sake of completeness: **DPI** is short for **D** ots **P** er **I** nch, and is a measure of your screen resolution. Some screen elements are not scaled in pixels, but in ‘screen inches’ (not to be comfused with the 25.4mm kind). If you specify that your display does 120DPI, then the driver will think that an element that’s supposed to cover one ‘screen inch’ has to be scaled up to 120 pixels. In the Bad Old Days[sup]TM[/sup] the Macs used to have a 1:1 relation between ‘screen inches’ and ‘25.4mm units’, but on Windows it was wild. It’s possible that things have changed in recent versions though. ---
**Author:** ![Markside](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Markside](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markside)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-dpi/147488/8 "2003-01-09T21:29:15Z")
Thanks for the help. 🙂 FYI, I’m using Windows XP. I also have a GeForce4 TI. So, I’ll try messing with the refresh rates. I did discover that font sizes were the culprit. Totally by accident, of course. I wanted to mess with the fonts, and when I made them a little smaller, the icons went back to normal. Anyways, thank you for the information. I appreciate it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-dpi/147488/9 "2003-01-09T22:11:16Z")
I’ve found that anything other than the standard DPI settings (120 or 96) can make some applications look really messy; for example if you design an Access form then change the DPI setting to a _custom_ value, the form will not display properly (all the labels and text objects get ‘bunched up’ and objects overlap etc).