[thelist] WinXP says goodbye to 640x480

[aardvark]

> From: Eric Vitiello <evolt at perceive.net>
>
> If you are in windows (and I'm sure there is a comparable setting in
> mac), there are many visual options to change to make your display
> more useful, without the loss of detail that happens with a 640x480
> screen -
>
> In display properties, under effects,  you can select "use large
> icons" which will make your icons considerably larger, with the same
> detail.
>
> under the appearance tab of display properties, you can change
> EVERYTHING about your windows, the border size, titlebar text size,
> menu text size, window text size, the size of the 3d GUI elements
> (buttons, etc).
[...]

interestingly enough, when you scale up the buttons, the icons, the
system text size, etc., all you are essentially doing is mimicking a
640x480 display...

granted, you will still have a higher pixel density, so raster images
on web pages will display as they normally would at that
resolution, but if you have all your chrome and text scaled up, well,
you really could be running at a de facto 640x480 in just % of
space the characters and chrome take up on screen...

so, even if you ditch 640x480 as a target, but you do choose to
make your site accessible, then guess what, you still have to
account for your pages being squished beyond that minimum you
choose to set...

IOW, just because you don't like 640x480, and just because it may
be hard to find in XP, doesn't mean people won't be configuring
their system to mimic it...