How do YOU set up monitors for people with bad eyesight?

This is something I'm always struggling with at work. We put in new Win7 workstations with new widescreen monitors, and they're always complaining about things being too small.

The windows font-size adjuster only effects certain text sizes in various programs... it is never an adequate solution.

Often i've had to drop the resolution so that it's no longer an optimal resolution for the monitor, but many users prefer blurry large icons/fonts/buttons vs clear smaller ones.

What have y'all done to get around this?

Easy fix is to get lower resolution displays. Or same resolution, larger displays.

You can control icon sizes and text sizes for default controls in windows, but that's about it. If they're using a lot of web apps, install a plugin to automatically increase the size a couple notches to 120%.

Some software won't play nice with Windows settings, as you have discovered, and unfortunately there are limitations on what you can do about it. First make sure the dpi is set high, which I am guessing is already done. Some programs play nice, but not all, and especially not older programs. For webpages, you can use nosquint and similar things, or adjust the webpage sizes/fonts in settings for the browsers.

The best solution, as mentioned, may simply be to get lower res monitors. What size/res are your workstation monitors? And the widescreen thing always seemed silly to me for any work related stuff.

A 19" 1024p (5:4) or if going widescreen, 27" 1080p, may be a bit better on the eyeballs.

What programs do they use? Most programs adjust zoom by holding ctrl and using the mouse wheel. Pretty much every web browser and office program does that and it looks way better than lowering the resolution of the monitor.

The monitor currently in use is this Syncmaster 2253lw, native resolution 1680x1050.

The main program in use is Adobe Audition 1.5. This is one of those softwares that doesn't play nice with the windows dpi setting. It affected a couple file views, but most of the text in the program is tiny. Can't find jack in the program either to increase these font sizes.

Because the studio guys are working on a timeline, i think having widescreen is actually pretty beneficial.

I'll look for some larger displays with the same resolution--thanks for the tip.

Using a timeline may be one situation where widescreen would be helpful.

You aren't going to find bigger models with that same resolution (or at least not easily) as 1680x1050 was pretty much phased out a while ago. Perhaps there are some 22"ers still using it, but bigger screens will usually be at least 1920x1080.

And to get larger text at 1080p, compared to what you have now, you'd want 27".

william_fontaine said:

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uber sexy

The best result is to half resolution, for example use 800x600 on a 1600x1200 monitor, 1280x720 on 2560x1440 or 1280x800 on a 2560x1600 monitor. This way you avoid scaling artifacts and blurred fonts.

1080p monitors are a great challenge because there is no standard half resolution for 1920x1080p. I friend of my has 20/50 and 20/80 and i choose to use 720p and larger fonts in windows settings. A better option is to use the lowest possible resolution that works with all used workplace programs and windows "magnifying glass" tool.

Visually impaired are a great excuse to use IT budget on koreans 1440p- these monitors are low cost solutions for the problem, and work flawlessly with AMD integrated VGAs.

^^ Thanks for the post--i didn't know that you could avoid blurriness and ghosting if you used half-resolutions. I'll give this a whirl in one of our studios.

for web browsing:

firefox + nosquint addon

lets you set zoom presets for the entire page, or just text....

I just finished upgrading from XP to Win7 computers and also switching from IE9 to Firefox. I was like a kid in a candy store when I found the add-ons that could be installed. I looked at NoSquint but ended up choosing Default Full Zoom Level 5.0 and Zoom Page 5.3.

Beforehand, I also set Windows to run fonts at 125%.

At age 58, I can still use a computer without glasses but it's getting a little harder each year. I use 1920x1200 monitors and chose them partly because the dot pitch offered the best balance between real estate and readability/usability, especially for Word and Excel.

Helps having a 120hz screen also.
less eyestrain for me with one.

My father uses a half-resolution at his office, he hasn't complained about it and he's on his computer all day.

The title should be changed to: how do you setup a monitor for people over 40, which is half the population.
150% increase in font size is my favorite solution everywhere, including android.

For normal early age related eyesight problems...
The users don't tend to see that the text is blurry when scaled to a non native resolution because they are only complaining as they are not willing to accept that they need stronger glasses.
Often combined with complains about bad lighting when looking at printed documents "I can't read it's too dark in here..."
(the iris closes in bright environments like a cameras aperture giving you more sharpness even without spectacles, with adequate glasses the lighting would not be a problem)

There's the option of subsequently increasing the font size and sitting distance to compensate for the lack of close range eye focus but there's a limit on how far you can get with this solution as it turns a bit odd over 32'' 720p... and it's not really necessary. For most even 1920*1080 @ 21.5'' would work just fine (even if they were unable to read websites on a 56'' 720p TV), once they visited an optician, or tested some $3 reading glasses at walmart.

So before getting a bunch of monitors I'd suggest buying a stack of cheapest reading glasses of different strengths for the users to test if it's only a problem of normal age related farsightedness or a more severe eye disease.

If there's absolutely no way in hell that you'll get someone to wear glasses a 100'' LCD or projector set to 720p 30+feet away from the desk would work for most even past their mid 50s.

chockomonkey said:

This is something I'm always struggling with at work. We put in new Win7 workstations with new widescreen monitors, and they're always complaining about things being too small.

The windows font-size adjuster only effects certain text sizes in various programs... it is never an adequate solution.

Often i've had to drop the resolution so that it's no longer an optimal resolution for the monitor, but many users prefer blurry large icons/fonts/buttons vs clear smaller ones.

What have y'all done to get around this?

Click to expand...

you can always decrease the resolution to a non native lower resolution provided it matches the aspect ratio of the panel. Contrary to popular belief you do not have to use the maximum resolutio on any lcd panel, this will help anyone with bad eyesight who wants the image and text to be larger. For example I have a 30 inch 16:10 aspect ration monitor, the max resolution is 2560x1600, for web browsing and decent text viewing I run the panel at either 1920x1200 or 1680x1050 making everything larger with less field of view of course. Easy adjustment in windows control panel. simply change the resolution.

Benny said:

For normal early age related eyesight problems...
The users don't tend to see that the text is blurry when scaled to a non native resolution because they are only complaining as they are not willing to accept that they need stronger glasses.
Often combined with complains about bad lighting when looking at printed documents "I can't read it's too dark in here..."
(the iris closes in bright environments like a cameras aperture giving you more sharpness even without spectacles, with adequate glasses the lighting would not be a problem)

There's the option of subsequently increasing the font size and sitting distance to compensate for the lack of close range eye focus but there's a limit on how far you can get with this solution as it turns a bit odd over 32'' 720p... and it's not really necessary. For most even 1920*1080 @ 21.5'' would work just fine (even if they were unable to read websites on a 56'' 720p TV), once they visited an optician, or tested some $3 reading glasses at walmart.

So before getting a bunch of monitors I'd suggest buying a stack of cheapest reading glasses of different strengths for the users to test if it's only a problem of normal age related farsightedness or a more severe eye disease.

If there's absolutely no way in hell that you'll get someone to wear glasses a 100'' LCD or projector set to 720p 30+feet away from the desk would work for most even past their mid 50s.

Click to expand...

I have perfect 20/20 vision, I do not like reading text or viewing web pages at 1920x1200. Your suggestion is utter stupidity.

Control Panel and Display settings under windows 7?

I have everything at 125%

conghelach said:

I have perfect 20/20 vision, I do not like reading text or viewing web pages at 1920x1200. Your suggestion is utter stupidity.

Click to expand...

20/20 refers to being able to see things at 20 feet distance.
This is independent from the ability to focus at close ranges like 2 feet for extended periods of time.
Having 20/20 vision does not rule out the possibility to be farsighted, and is actually a rather common combination when people with good vision get older.
(the muscles that move the lens are relatively relaxed when looking at the test image from a larger distance but have trouble keeping the lens focused at close ranges resulting in fatigue headache ect. )

(1) Step by step guide :

1. Take TN/PWM Monitor/Hard Coating monitor off the table.
2. Open window
3. Throw Monitor out
4. Close window
5. Go to store
6. Buy IPS or PVA/Non grainy coating/No PWM


(2) Non-destructive step by step guide:

1. If monitor has PWM: - use as many lights as possible in the room, use maximum brightness setting.
2. Use native screen resolution.
3. Use a hardware calibrator if possible.
4. Don't mess with wndows brightness/contrast as it will only lower contrast.
5. Do NOT use maximum contrast on the monitor, search the internet for a contrast that was resulted from a hardware calibration.
6. If you want to be able to up the brightness of the monitor, do not lower the brightness from driver so you can go higher, calibrate for 2.4 gamma instead, and/or different color temperature.
7. If you find yourself in a situation that you can't adapt to the amount of light that is coming towards you, no matter how you adjust the brightness of the monitor, then you most likely got a pwm monitor and use guide #1.
8. If you find yourself in the situation that your eyes keep stop on the grainy coating, go to guide #1.
9. If you find yourself in the situation that you keep focus your eyes on the images that are reflected, then you most likely use a tempered glass monitor that is glossy, and you find its glossiness too much for yourself. Use guide #1 for this as well.(phone me first so I can go catch it cause is fine for me).