VMD-L Mailing List

From: Dow Hurst (dphurst_at_uncg.edu)
Date: Sat Oct 10 2015 - 22:27:00 CDT

I am testing vnd on a 3840x2160 16:9 15.6" display and have found vmd to be
just about unusable due to the small font and menu size. To run vmd under
the nvidia graphics requires "primusrun vmd " due to the hybrid graphics
configuration. The resulting X server settings have the display as
96x96dpi, and this is the same under Intel HD5600 graphics. I'm still
learning how to deal with the hybrid graphics, but having OpenGL hardware
acceleration thru the nvidia gtx980m card is not a problem. I would also
really appreciate a font size option and HiDPI support in vmd. FYI, I've
installed Linux Mint 17.2 Cinnamon that does support HiDPI for the desktop.
I will try fiddling with the X display dpi size.

Sincerely,
Dow
⚛Dow Hurst, Research Scientist
       340 Sullivan Science Bldg.
       Dept. of Chem. and Biochem.
       University of North Carolina at Greensboro
       PO Box 26170 Greensboro, NC 27402-6170

On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 10:41 AM, Miroslav Krepl <krepl_at_seznam.cz> wrote:

> Hello again,
>
> I have been tinkering with this problem on and off for about a month and
> still found no solution.
>
> The text font size in VMD does not seem to be affected by changing the X
> server DPI value at all. I even tried some other computers and Linux
> distros and desktop managers with the same result.
>
> Could someone else please verify whether changing the X server DPI value
> changes the font size in their VMD or not?
>
> If it does not then I'd like to humbly make a feature request - menu
> option to allow to manually change the font sizes within the vmd itself.
>
> The high DPI displays are on the rise, so this problem is definitely
> going to become more and more common. Based on extensive google search
> on the general subject, I see it is already a problem in many other
> apps, both linux and windows based (e.g. Skype). Imo, fixing this in VMD
> is important future proofing.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Best regards,
>
> Miroslav Krepl
>
>
>
> On Tue, 2015-07-14 at 10:12 -0500, John Stone wrote:
> > Hi,
> > You might see if forcing the X11 screen DPI to be a higher value
> > has the effect of triggering X11 to use bigger fonts automatically.
> > Sometimes these problems are caused purely by X11 being unable to
> > correctly ascertain the physical pixel pitch of the display, and
> > you can sometimes correct the problem by manually setting the DPI
> > value for your display to whatever it should be, or to a value that
> > you can live with. Some related info can be found by googling
> > "force X11 dpi" and visiting the appropriate links.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > John Stone
> > vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> >
> > On Fri, Jul 10, 2015 at 11:29:49PM +0200, Miroslav Krepl wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > thank you. I suspected as much.
> > >
> > > Do you please have any suggestions on how to make X11 select higher DPI
> > > fonts? I have been searching and trying different methods for hours to
> > > no end :(
> > >
> > > I have NVIDIA proprietary drivers and Linux Mint running mdm display
> > > manager.
> > >
> > > Thank you.
> > >
> > > Miroslav Krepl
> > >
> > >
> > > On Thu, 2015-07-09 at 23:20 -0500, John Stone wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > > There's nothing you can do on the VMD side, but you can change
> > > > the X server configuration so that it picks better fonts for your
> > > > particular display. If you have a high resolution, but small sized
> > > > display, you will want to ensure that X11 is selecting the 100+ dpi
> > > > fonts rather than 75dpi fonts, for example...
> > > >
> > > > Cheers,
> > > > John Stone
> > > > vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> > > >
> > > > On Wed, Jul 08, 2015 at 06:14:36PM +0200, Miroslav Krepl wrote:
> > > > > Hello,
> > > > >
> > > > > please, is there any way to increase the text size in VMD main
> menu and
> > > > > the various submenus?
> > > > >
> > > > > I am running at 1920x1200 resolution and the text size is already
> rather
> > > > > small for my taste.
> > > > >
> > > > > I run the VMD version 1.9.2 on Linux kernel 3.2.0-23.
> > > > >
> > > > > Thank you very much!
> > > > >
> > > > > Best regards,
> > > > >
> > > > > Miroslav Krepl
> > > >
> > >
> >
>
>
>