Interface Font Scaling

ID:112052
 
Apr 15 2011, 8:23 am (Edited on Apr 16 2011, 5:47 am)
BYOND Version:481
Operating System:Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Web Browser:Firefox 3.6.16
Applies to:Dream Seeker
Status: Unverified
Thus far we've been unable to verify or reproduce this bug. Or, it has been observed but it cannot be triggered with a reliable test case. You can help us out by editing your report or adding a comment with more information.
I have very little information about this problem, but have had several people report it.
In some instances, the font size on interface controls does not scale properly? and this leads to text getting cut off.
http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af57/SuperNami/Rawr.png
I attempted a few things to cause this problem on my own computer, mostly changing the resolution, but I couldn't seem to reproduce the issue.
The problem has been around for quite a while, so its nothing caused by the most recent update or anything like that.
Maybe it has something to do with Windows themes or other settings...

EDITS: OK, I've reproduced the issue on my own computer. Not sure if this is the case for everyone, but it can be caused by changing Windows 7's font size. Not sure if theres anything you can do about that...
Apr 15 2011, 10:21 am
We need the BYOND version and OS as minimal information here, even if several people have reported the bug. Please edit the report to fill in that information, and please fill in the template with as much info as you can.

We also need some info on how to reproduce the issue. For instance knowing the size of the control, the desired font style and point size, are also important so there's a basis on which to construct a demo to try to confirm the issue. If you see the right size on your own system then you should be able to provide those baseline measurements at least.

For the time being I'm moving this to Unverified because it has no information.
Apr 16 2011, 5:38 am (Edited on Apr 16 2011, 5:47 am)
I've reproduced the issue on my own computer. Not sure if this is the case for everyone, but it can be caused by changing Windows 7's font size. Not sure if theres anything you can do about that...
I've also changed the BYOND version and OS fields.
Apr 18 2011, 9:17 am (Edited on Apr 18 2011, 9:25 am)
The font size information led me to some info that suggests the method universally recommended to calculate font size is in fact crap. Everything always recommends using GetDeviceCaps(LOGPIXELSY)/72 for the conversion from pixels to point size, and we use this all over our code. Apparently, 96 is the normal standard for this, but in any version of Windows since 95 it can be adjusted for usability. This screws over interfaces built for custom pixel sizes so we'd either have to adjust everything or switch to using the 96 default. I'll do some testing and see if the latter is the most sensible solution (as it seems to be on the surface).

[edit]
If you change the font size in Windows, does this also impact stuff like output controls with image backgrounds (especially when text is selected)? I wonder now if that issue could be related.
Apr 19 2011, 1:22 pm