Strange textsize change on different Macs

[Zumo]

I'm actually discovered a strange problem with OOo 4.0.1 on my Macs with OS X 10.8.5:

The displayed textsize (here the example in A1) on my MacBook Air is much bigger, than on my Mac mini, as you can see on this screenshots:

MacBook Air 13" at 1440x900:


Mac mini, monitor 24" at 1920x1080:


As you see, the sampletext in cell A1 is on the MacBook much bigger, but zooming and scaling is set to 100% on both systems. This happens to all documents, regardless if they're from writer or calc.

My problem is, that the documents are synced between both Macs and are edited on both sides. If I zoom the document, I'll have to do this everytime vice versa on the other Mac. If I use the scaling in the settings, not only the documents are scaled, but also the menus and buttons (in forms), going unreadable on the MacBook.

Maybe this is an automated scaling from OOo depending on the DPI of the screen? Is there a (hidden) setting to ignore this, so the displayed document looks the same, independent of the system? This would be great.

I've postet this question about 10 days ago in this board, but with no answers at all, so please excuse the crossposting.

Thank you very much for any help.

[RoryOF]

Set both screens to the same resolution and the displays should be identical.

[Zumo]

Thank you for your answer, but...

1. no, it doesn't:

This picture showed up, when I reduced the 1920x1080 resolution on the Mac mini to 1440x900.

2. it would not be a serious solution, because you can't run a MacBook Air at 1920x1080, nor will you run 1440x900 on a full-hd monitor.

The display of an application should be quite identical, independent of the used resolution, especially when it offers a manual scaling - every app execpt OOo does this on my systems.

[Zumo]

Is this stupid changing of the font-size depending on screen-resolution and/or dpi really a "feature" of OOo, which can't be turned off?

[RoryOF]

Use identical displays and all should be well.

[Zumo]

OMG, you're right! I haven't thought on that

OOo seems to be the only software, which changes the scaling for user convenience depending on the the used display. Pure ingenuity! I just have to carry around a 24" full-HD display with my MacBook Air... with the need of an electric socket, of course.

And I'm glad, that OOo now shares Apples mindset of sink or swim!

*SCNR* as your answer seems to be not quite serious, mine wasn't also and I won't to disgust you. I'm really thankful for any help, if it is one.

I'm sorry for the "stupid" in my last post, but I really cannot see the advantage to have different font-sizes on different screens. And if there is one, it should be an option to disable it...

[RoryOF]

If it were my problem, and I were worried about it, I'd be investigating the DPI (dots per inch) values of the separate screens.

[Zumo]

This was one of my first ideas, but neither Apple, nor community-forums could give me an answer, where to a) figure it out (except from using a ruler), or b) change it.

So it may depend on the DPI of the screen -which I wrote in my first post- but this didn't bring up any solution.

I really think, there must be a (hidden) option to disable this in OOo. If it isn't, it should be in future at least.

[RoryOF]

There is some (too much?) information in
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/flex/mobile ... -8000.html
which might point you in a direction.

[acknak]

As I understand it, OO is designed to read the screen DPI and adjust the document display to match the screen DPI. If that is working correctly, the same document should look the same--text should have the same height--on any screen. Obviously, in that situation, the size of the text relative to the size of the display (or screen capture) can change if the screens have very different resolutions (DPI). As far as I know, there's no way to turn that off.

If that's not what you're seeing then I think most likely either the system is reporting an incorrect DPI value, or OO is somehow not getting the correct value.

One way to check it directly, in Calc, is to set a row to a specific height and then measure the height on the screen with a ruler. If I set a row to be 3 inches high, it is exactly three inches high on my screen.

Another potential source of problems when the same document looks different on different systems is the installed fonts. Fonts, even the same font face, can change with different versions on different systems, or the font may be available on one system and not the other, so OO has to substitute a different font.

[Zumo]

There is some (too much?) information in
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/flex/mobile ... -8000.html
which might point you in a direction.

Yes, much to much information! I don't know, what you are pointing at, when referring to Adobes guidelines to mobile applications.

Do you want to tell me, the behavior of OOo can be changed by a CSS file? Or should I patch my system? Or do you want me to change the OOo sourcecode? Or would you just show up, what DPI detection is good for?

Sorry, I don't get it...

I know, that my two Macs do have different displays with different DPI (and I even know, what this means), but I still see no solution.

[Zumo]

As I understand it, OO is designed to read the screen DPI and adjust the document display to match the screen DPI. If that is working correctly, the same document should look the same--text should have the same height--on any screen.

You're right, this might be the thought behind this changes, which doesn't make it better in my eyes that there is no option available to turn it off. For Writer this might be a little bit more usefull, but in Calc IMHO it makes no sense at all.

As far as I know, there's no way to turn that off.

That's bad

Another potential source of problems when the same document looks different on different systems is the installed fonts. Fonts, even the same font face, can change with different versions on different systems, or the font may be available on one system and not the other, so OO has to substitute a different font.

I'm using the simple and preinstalled Arial font for my examples to eliminate this potential problem.

[hobla]

I have exactly the same situation here with a MacBook Air 13" and a 1920 x 1200 24" - pretty annoying...

[Zumo]

Yap, and you will get no solution...

[hobla]

Still preesent in 4.1 - I filed a bug...

[RoryOF]

It's actually not a bug. Look at Zumo's first picture. There are 7 Columns shown, and frames etc equivalent to another column. It is on a 1440 wide display. So, say 8 columns. Each column is therefore 180 pixels wide.

Now look at Zumo's second picture, 1920 wide display. How many 180 pixel columns does that provide? 10.67. How many columns are shown? The equivalent of 10.x - near enough allowing for cropping errors in his pictures.

Display your finished file on a screen with the same resolution as that of the composition machine and output sill be near enough identical. Display on a higher resolution screen and you get more, go to a lower resolution screen and you get less. If the 1920 width screen was forced to 1440 width, the picture would be near enough identical.