IIyama XB2779QS (27") Monitor - Moved from the Lounge board

[Naughty Nigel]

This post is by way of a recommendation, and a plea for help.

Firstly, I recently bought a new 27" Iiyama monitor, which is utterly brilliant.

It has a glass front rather like the Mac monitors (I believe it is exactly the same panel underneath), and is by far the best I have ever used.

In the context of this thread, it is particularly well suited to photo editing and suchlike, with a resolution of 2560 x 1440, which allows close scrutiny of images before printing.

I am just glad I bought mine before Apple takes out an injunction to stop Iiyama from selling them!

However, I am finding that Windows menu text is now too small for comfort. There is an option in Screen Resolution to 'Make Text and Other Items Larger or Smaller', but changing this from 100% (default) this seems to change other parameters, and spoils the layout of menu bars, gadgets and so forth.

There is, somewhere in Windows, an app that allows you to change the size and font style of menu text, but I am dammed if I can find it. Does anyone here know where it is?

(I am using windows 7 x64).

[catkins]

Re: IIyama XB2779QS (27&quot Monitor

Just to check - are you changing the resolution in your graphics card settings or in the Windows Control Panel . . . Display - in the latter (Windows 8) there is the option to change Text Size only for specific items only such as Title Bars, Menus, etc.

Regards
Chris

[Jim Ford]

Re: IIyama XB2779QS (27&quot Monitor

Was it a good price, Nigel? I'm toying with getting a better monitor.

Jim

[Ian]

Re: IIyama XB2779QS (27&quot Monitor

Was it a good price, Nigel? I'm toying with getting a better monitor.

Jim

You still using my old LG CRT?

Ian

[OM USer]

Re: IIyama XB2779QS (27&quot Monitor

a quick search reveals:

Windows 7

1. Open Appearance Settings by clicking the Start button and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type window color, and then click Change window colors and metrics.
2. In the Item list, click the part of Windows that you want to change the font for. For example, if you want to change the menu font, click Menu in the list. Then, make any of the following changes:
   
   • In the Font list, click the font that you want to use.
   • In the Size list, click the font size that you want.
   • In the Color list, click the font color that you want.

I can't confirm as I run XP and 8.1 which do things slightly differently

[Jim Ford]

Re: IIyama XB2779QS (27&quot Monitor

You still using my old LG CRT?

Yes, but with the falling prices and lower bulk of LED monitors, it might be time for a change.

Jim

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: IIyama XB2779QS (27&quot Monitor

Was it a good price, Nigel? I'm toying with getting a better monitor.

Jim

I bought it from Scan computers (www.scan.co.ukSee link here.

For photo editing I really couldn't think of a better monitor, apart from the Mac which is nearly three times the price.

(To put it into perspective, if you use it to display E1 images the screen resolution is not far short of the camera's!)

However the jury is still out on using it for general office duties as the ultra high resolution means that Windows text is uncomfortably small.

I shall try OM User's suggestion and will report back on that one.

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: IIyama XB2779QS (27&quot Monitor

a quick search reveals:

Windows 7

1. Open Appearance Settings by clicking the Start button and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type window color, and then click Change window colors and metrics.
2. In the Item list, click the part of Windows that you want to change the font for. For example, if you want to change the menu font, click Menu in the list. Then, make any of the following changes:
   
   • In the Font list, click the font that you want to use.
   • In the Size list, click the font size that you want.
   • In the Color list, click the font color that you want.

I can't confirm as I run XP and 8.1 which do things slightly differently

Thanks OM User, that did the trick - well sort of.

Oddly enough, when I eventually found the Appearance Settings menu it was almost as I remember it from Windows 3.1! Microsoft likes to make it difficult to find such menus, but when you find them it is like meeting up with a long lost friend!

The good news is that changing the font size does enlarge some Windows text, but not all. The menus is Word, for example, are still too small, but I have found that I can change font sizes in Outlook quite easily.

Some other programmes are still difficult to use (Sage Accounts for example), as the text is just too small.

I am sure I will find a way, but with monitors this good, and with such high resolutions, there really does need to be an easier way.

How does Apple deal with this problem, as they have had 27" monitors for a while, but still use the same OS and apps on 13" laptops?

I guess I could simply change the resolution for everyday tasks, but it rather defeats the object of having a high resolution monitor. And I find that once I am sued to a setting I like to leave it that way.

[DerekW]

Re: IIyama XB2779QS (27&quot Monitor - Moved from the Lounge board

Just looked at Word on my 27inch Mac screen driven by the current Mac OSX and the menu fonts were OK to read.


I had noticed the problem on some Windows computers when on holiday where the owner had upgraded the computer and screen and could no longer read and use the screens easily because the fonts were too small.

[OM USer]

Re: IIyama XB2779QS (27&quot Monitor

...The good news is that changing the font size does enlarge some Windows text, but not all. The menus is Word, for example, are still too small, but I have found that I can change font sizes in Outlook quite easily.

Some other programmes are still difficult to use (Sage Accounts for example), as the text is just too small...

It will be at least a month before I can get my hands on a Win7 machine but I did find a Vista machine to play with and I believe these 2 operating systems are very similar.

right click background -> personalize
click on "windows color and appearance" (US spelling on this machine rather than UK)
click on "open classic appearnce properties for more color options"
click on "advanced..."
select item -> menu (this bit important else you will change some other object's font properties)
change font size (eg from 9 to 18); the menu size (just above) wil change (eg from 18 to 34)
click on "ok"
click on "apply" (the appearance window)
please wait... (took a good 20 seconds)

all menu items were now twice the size (including menus in word 2007).

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: IIyama XB2779QS (27&quot Monitor

It will be at least a month before I can get my hands on a Win7 machine but I did find a Vista machine to play with and I believe these 2 operating systems are very similar.

right click background -> personalize
click on "windows color and appearance" (US spelling on this machine rather than UK)
click on "open classic appearnce properties for more color options"
click on "advanced..."
select item -> menu (this bit important else you will change some other object's font properties)
change font size (eg from 9 to 18); the menu size (just above) wil change (eg from 18 to 34)
click on "ok"
click on "apply" (the appearance window)
please wait... (took a good 20 seconds)

all menu items were now twice the size (including menus in word 2007).

Thank you for that information. I am working away at present and only have my Windows 8 laptop with me, but I will try your suggestion when I return home on Friday.

As posted previously I did manage to make Windows text larger, but this didn't have any affect on MS apps such as Word or Outlook. I also found by accident that I could change the size of text in the Outlook 'navigation pane' by scrolling while holding the CTRL key down, but I cannot seem to repeat it!

It is interesting that Mac users don't seem to suffer from this problem, although I used a 27" Mac in the lounge at the airport on Monday, and to be honest, I found the text in some apps was too small for long term use.

This isn't the first time I have encountered problems when using large monitors, but this new Iiyama has such high resolution that it makes nearly all text and icons seem small. There again, I can comfortably fit three A4 pages in the same view at greater than 100% scale!