Font sizes changed

garyfritz · 03 Nov 2022

This isn't strictly about graphics cards (I think?) but it's a display issue.

I have an HP Spectre x360 15 laptop. Its native resolution is 3840x2160. But I don't need or particularly want that much resolution, especially since I have an external 1920x1080 monitor that I use as my main display when in the office. So I run the internal display at 1920x1080, so I have the same scale on both monitors.

I just had a week of vacation and took the laptop with me. When I got back, I noticed my fonts were kind of messed up. Many (not all) apps are displaying (on both screens) at about 150% of the normal font size. In Windows File Explorer, the fonts are large enough that lines start to overlap. In Chrome I have to resize to about 70% to get the visual result I used to get at 100%, but that only affects window contents, not the tabs &etc.

I checked Display Settings, and everything is correct: the Scale and Layout setting on both displays is 100% and the resolution is 1920x1080, as it should be. I can't change the scale size to 70% because it only supports 100%, 125%, 150%, and 175%.

What would cause this, and how do I fix?

Windows 10 Pro, version 21H1, build 19043.2130.

Helmut · 05 Nov 2022

Basically you are working in reverse. The basic DPI of your screens are different so will be the scaling. They should not be the same.

Set your Laptop to its native resolution 3840x2160, then use scaling of around 125% or 150% maybe more.

garyfritz · 05 Nov 2022

I appreciate the suggestion, but I don't WANT to run the laptop at native resolution. I tried to run it like that when I first got it, and it messed up too much stuff to run different resolutions on the two screens. I could change the scaling and maybe get the font sizes to sort of match, but then windows would be double or half size if I moved them from one screen to the other. Not a good answer. Plus it's silly to have 3480 pixels on a 12.5"-wide screen anyway! That's nearly 300 dpi ...