Originally Posted By: PeterGannon
)) i have a 35" x 19" 4K monitor resolution set at 3840 x 2160 via Windows(v7). text size via Windows is set to "Custom 200%" so i can read text.

Thee are 3 types of resizing that can occur in Windows control panel - display

1. Just resize the fonts only (it sounds like this is the one you've done)
This will make the fonts bigger in most places in most programs. But it doesn't make other things bigger like graphical buttons. At your huge resolution, this will leave some programs looking very tiny.

2. Scale everything
This is hit or miss, especially on Windows 7. It is improved on Windows 10. This allows you to scale programs and everything gets bigger. In your case you would choose something like 200%. There are YouTube videos on this... search for Windows scaling 4K.

If you are tech savvy, there are some impressive videos where they make a custom manifest file, which allows you to set certain programs to scale differently. I'd reccomend windows 10 if you are doing that though.

3. Reduce resolution of screen. You could choose 1920x1080 which is half of your current setting. That will make everything 2x bigger. It should still be very sharp, because it is a multiple of 2 to get to your native resolution.


I expect that you're noticing issues with lots of programs because the YouTube videos describe those issues with photoshop etc having tiny buttons. If so, and it was me, I would choose option 3 and reduce res to 1920x1080. If you are watching a movie or something, and want 4K, switch to the hi res for the movie.

If you want to go the scaling route I think you'd need to update to Windows 10 for best results.

Option 1 isn't going to help much with biab. The text won't get bigger in many dialogs, because there just isn't room for bigger txt and the dialogs don't get bigger. And the graphics don't get bigger, so you're left with tiny buttons.


thanks for the reply & help

(#2) that's cool. i will view some of those youtube vids and try the manifest file. would be interesting and fun to give it a try. for now, i'll stick to Win 7.

(#3)
i set resolution to 2560x1440 which is ok for running BiaB. i tried 1920x1080 but preferred the 2560x1440 for me. dialog boxes are easier to read now.


not all my apps & their icons scale badly though. most all adjust toolbar & dialog fonts just fine. a few old
apps won't even start in this resolution.

LibreOffice or the Reaper app, when clicking on their respective "options" or "preferences" dialog boxes, their text scales ok and is easily readable at 3840 x 2160. as are browsers and foxit pdf app.

there are issues with 4k as you pointed out. i'll get more educated on this with the youtube vids you suggested.

thanks again for your help. and thanks to the others that replied too.