[geeks] Does size matter

der Mouse mouse at Rodents-Montreal.ORG
Mon Aug 25 11:54:17 CDT 2008


>>> You'd think in this world of 3D-composited window systems we'd have
>>> resolution independence, already.
>> I think the programmers of the world are what is holding this back,
> Most OSes have no APIs to facilitate resolution independent drawing.
> The fundamental unit of operation for most raster graphics systems is
> still the pixel.

Honestly, I don't think we (FSVO "we") _want_ resolution independence
yet.  Not until pixels are too small to see (meaning at least 300dpi,
probably finer, for general-purpose use, though, for people whose
eyesight is deteriorating, that may be unnecessary).

Until then, a difference of one pixel still makes a substantial
difference, so good results require knowing about individual pixels.

Note that this is down in the "printer resolution" range, and, surprise
surprise, printers are one place where we pretty much _do_ have working
resolution independence.

/~\ The ASCII				der Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
 X  Against HTML		mouse at rodents-montreal.org
/ \ Email!	     7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B



More information about the geeks mailing list