setting X server DPI

[Tim]

Tim:
>> i.e. 12 point text is the same size whether printed on 2 inches of
>> paper, or 20 inches of paper.

Tom Horsley:
> Absolutely true, and absolutely the point. If you specify a 12 point
> font on a 46" 1920x1080 display, you will wind up drawing some
> random smudge of bits that is indeed able to fit on a line that
> is 12/72 of an inch high, but there aren't enough frigging pixels
> to render the font in any fashion that makes it remotely possible
> to discern what the character actually represents.
> 
> As long as all the software in the universe insists on defaulting
> to things like 9 or 12 point fonts for menu items and login screens
> no sane person would want the default DPI to actually match the
> hardware because they couldn't possibly read what it says enough
> to even find the dialog box they need to fix it.

So fix up the things that do it wrong, like DON'T specify stupidly small
fonts.  Don't BUGGER UP EVERYTHING else.

If your experience is so limited that you cannot understand that
stuffing up measurement systems so that *nothing* works right, you're
not in a position to argue this point.

This is computing, we need the computer to do what it's told, to be 100%
predictable so you can control it under all circumstances (print on
screen, paper, A4 sheets, posters, etc.).  You, or the system, cannot be
taken serious when you have to tell a system to use 64 point text to
actually at print 12 point size.


-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.19-78.2.30.fc9.i686

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