Is High DPI Windows support coming soon?

[Mark Krieger]

I just did some research on Project/Task management systems and was really looking forward to trying MLO, but after installing I found out that it is not working quite properly with HighDPI screens.

I have a 1920x1080 15.6" laptop screen and the choice is between everything fuzzy and small Task Properties (many other utems can be enlarged enough with the settings - although some drop-downs run the text into each other in the right bar). I think that'll be too hard on the eyes working with it all day.

Questions here about this are going back four years so I was wondering if I should keep evaluating MLO if changes are planned with more and more HighDPI screens being out there or if I should just move on?

[Richard C]

I use MLO and have done so for many years (and don't know what I would do without it).     I am planning to move to a new laptop with a high DPI screen and I am concerned about your comments.   What version of Windows are you on.    Have you tried playing with the scaling options?       This appears to be a complex area which I am a long way from fully understanding (for example,  this does not make a lot of sense to me: http://www.winbeta.org/news/heres-microsoft-plans-scaling-windows-10-redstone-update) 

But bottom line:   I agree that it is critical that MLO 'plays nicely' with high res displays

[Kent]

The issue appears when you want to scale above 100% in Windows 10 -- which you'd want to do on most laptops and would almost need to do on a UHD/4k screen.  On my new Windows 10 laptop with a 4K screen (3,840-by-2,160), MLO fonts look fuzzy.  I found a partial work-around in this free software utility: http://windows10_dpi_blurry_fix.xpexplorer.com/

This utility works, but it only scales up to 200%.  On my 4k screen, it need to go to 250% to make it usable, so -- for now -- I'm living with the blurry fonts.  Ironically, iTunes has the same problem, though my other installed software handles Window 10's new scaling scheme just fine.  I am hoping that the MLO team can fix this in a future release.

[Mark Krieger]

@Richard

I am running Windows 10 and my screen is set to custom 130% scaling on the 15.6" 1920x1080 screen since the default 125% is a bit too small for my eyes.

MLO is not DPI aware. That means that Windows will scale the application up. This means that it takes the "image" of the screen and enlarges it (by 1.3x in my case). When you enlarge bitmaps they get more fuzzy. A 1.25x is a bit better than 1.3x, but it still will be a bit fuzzy.

If an application is programmed DPI aware then it knows when it should draw at higher resolution and will make the UI for the higher resolution with more pixels which will result in crisp text and lines ... icons depend on the embedded image quality.

A work-around right now is to tell Windows to not scale the application. Then it will draw at its original pixels and be crisp, but be, in my case, 23% smaller than it should be. This results in a hard to read UI. A lot of items do work and I tell MLO to use bigger fonts which works for most of the UI, but the settings screen for example are still small.

In regular use that's OK - except for the "Filter" and "Properties" section on the left and right bottom which don't scale up (completely).

It's not great, but it may be somewhat workable (for me) after all.

Don't try to run it on a 4K screen in that mode though. I am pretty sure it'll be unrecognizable without using the magnifier.

[Mark Krieger]

I just created a feature request at https://mlo.uservoice.com/forums/9235-general/suggestions/15807268-high-dpi-and-4k-support-for-windows - please vote for it.