[thelist] hard won vector art tip...

[isaac]

> This is only true for Windows
> <tip type='Windows screen res incompatibility'>
> MS can't read standards. They 'misread' standard screen res as 96dpi,
> not 72dpi, and accordingly ensured that Windows fonts are always too
> big (relative to standard). This is why many (designed on Windows) sites
> are unreadable on (standards-compliant) Macs.

Martin,

To what standard are you referring? Will it still be a "standard" to you
when your precious Apple starts to license 300dpi display technology for
purposes of crisp on-screen text (likely to be very valuable for print
designers I'm sure)?

We've talked about this before WRT Microsoft's release of IE5 for Mac OS,
and their using 96dpi as the default setting for rendering of text. Here's
my response then (and now):

---
Both PC and Mac rely on stupid assumptions here - that their displays are
running at 96 and 72 DPI respectively. AFAIK, neither asks the display
subsystem how many DPI it is currently showing and renders accordingly.
Incidentally, from what I've read, there are Matrox cards that allow the
user to specify a DPI. Why not give users a choice in the browser too? So,
by *default* IE5/Mac allows more people to  view more sites as they were
indended. Not "all", but "more". Sure, it might screw up people who serve
Mac-specific stylesheets, but that'd hardly be a majority...

IE5/Mac also allows you to specify whether you want to go by 96 or 72 DPI,
so if you're bitter (obviously), and like your small Mac fonts, and mostly
unreadable sites, then change away.

To recap: they've implemented a "safety" default of 96 DPI so that more
sites than ever are immediately readable on the Mac, and they're also
allowing anyone to change the sizing, whether for reasons of personal
preference, or to simply read a specific page.Yet, you've been complaining
for months, and continue to do so.

It's interesting to note that Netscape are also adopting 96 DPI as default.
Here's a quote from Netscape's Mike Pinkerton: "We`re rendering at 96dpi
instead of the old 72 to match the web "standard" which is win32. IE5Mac is
doing this as well."

And I believe that Mozilla on Unix has a default value of 96 DPI too
---

If SCSI became accepted as a "standard", should no one develop USB, USB2,
Firewire, etc? Hey, let's go back to dirt tracks instead of bitumen -
forever.

John's advice, perhaps with an alteration, is still sensible:

"for best viewing for the majority of a general audience, export from
Illustrator to SWF at 96dpi."

That is, if you have a general audience, and hope to give the majority the
best viewing experience you can provide, export with Windows users in mind.

Note the quote from Mike Pinkerton, whose "-ing of "standard" suggests that
there are no official standards with which to comply. So, the best bet is to
go with the "web standard" of 96dpi.


IBM ships first 22" 200dpi displays
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/11/1457202&mode=flat


Have fun with your 72dpi...


isaac