[Issue] Distorted lines of text

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alanack
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[Issue] Distorted lines of text

Post by alanack »

Windows 7, OO 4.1.3

I'm experiencing distorted lines of text in writer documents - typically it is just one or a few lines, and the text is either stretched or compressed vertically. Entering a letter on the line or moving all the text vertically clears up the problem. I also sometimes see distortion where just part of the line is stretched or compressed, and the rest of the line is normal.

As a result of recommendations for similar problems on this forum I have done a few things: I've unchecked the boxes for hardware acceleration and anti-aliasing, and also reset my user profile, but the problem persists. If anyone could suggest anything else I'd be grateful. Thanks!
Last edited by Hagar Delest on Sun Jan 22, 2017 12:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: tagged [Issue] (link to a bug report).
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by RoryOF »

Are you applying any Character Style, or direct formatting by /Format /Character?
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alanack
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by alanack »

RoryOF wrote:Are you applying any Character Style, or direct formatting by /Format /Character?
Not on purpose, as I'm not familiar with those features. Thanks.
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alanack
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by alanack »

I'm still having this problem. Any other suggestions or ideas as to what I might do? Thanks in advance!
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by John_Ha »

I think it is a display problem, caused either by Writer or the OS, and it does not mean that document has been changed or corrupted.

If it disappears when you scroll it off screen, and back on screen again, then just ignore it. You might want to check the display driver is up to date.

If this solves the problem, please click the Edit button on your original post and add [Solved] in front of your subject.
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by alanack »

Thanks. The display driver is up to date (99% sure). Just to be clear, just moving the body of text down a single line clears everything.
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by Hagar Delest »

I think that I see that also sometimes on my Windows 7 machine at work. No big deal since it's just a display issue. When it occurs, it's just for one line and it disappears when scrolling. So I just put up with that.
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alanack
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by alanack »

For me it is an issue. I make my living editing texts all day long on writer. So it is one thing I don't want to be distracted by. And I do use windows 7. Still, there must be a reason for it happening, and if there's a reason there may be a solution. I'm hoping...
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by Hagar Delest »

You can write to the dev mailing list or file a bug report: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions.
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by keme »

alanack wrote:For me it is an issue. I make my living editing texts all day long on writer. So it is one thing I don't want to be distracted by. And I do use windows 7. Still, there must be a reason for it happening, and if there's a reason there may be a solution. I'm hoping...
The most recent driver is probably the one with the most extensive feature set. It is not always the most stable/reliable. More than once, after updating to newest drivers on our computers, some models need the display driver rolled back to previous version.
Typical issues: Flaws in color profile handling ruins the results for photoshop users. CAD software freezes when using 3D modeling. Video paging gives flicker when editing movie clips.
If you have graphics issues, see if the previous version of the driver is available from the computer maker's support pages (or from the maker of your video card if your computer did not come with that as default). Make sure you use 64 bit drivers with 64 bit OS.
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by John_Ha »

I never see it in Thunderbird or Firefox but occasionally see it in AOO. I just live with it.

A thought. I don't think it can be Writer because Writer is presumably not responsible for the final display stage. I think Writer says "display a Times New Roman letter a" and the only information it sends is the letter a. Windows picks up the TNR font file and displays the character, drawing the lines and arcs specified by the font file.

So why don't I see it in TB or FF :?
alanack wrote:For me it is an issue. I make my living editing texts all day long on writer.
If you highlight a selection of text, and look at the font size box then, if all the highlighted is the same size, the box shows that size. If any text - even a single character - is a different size, the font box is blank.
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by Hagar Delest »

John_Ha wrote:I don't think it can be Writer because Writer is presumably not responsible for the final display stage.
Not sure about that. There is an Ctrl+Shift+R shortcut to refresh the screen. Thus somewhere, Writer has an influence on the display.
I don't think I ever saw the problem in another application than Writer.
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alanack
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by alanack »

More info on this problem, which I'm determined to solve (with your generous help). If I highlight an area with distorted lines of text, it shows the font as the correct size, the box is not blank. I also checked my video driver, as someone recommended. This is an older Lenovo laptop, with Windows 7 installed by me. There has never been a driver update for this model, so it's current. There was a "monitor file" update available, which I updated. The problem persists. I might also mention that frequently just part of a line is higher or lower, things are all over the place, really. But as I said, if I shift the text one line up or down everything clears up, no problems. Again, thanks for any ideas about this...
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by RoryOF »

It may be worth checking with the site of the manufacturer of the video chip for a later driver, rather than relying on Windows updates or Lenovo site.
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alanack
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by alanack »

RoryOF wrote:It may be worth checking with the site of the manufacturer if the video chip for a later driver, rather than relying on Windows updates or Lenovo site.
Thanks for this tip. I did go to Intel's site, and tried to update a driver for the specific chipset (although the release date was about the same), but it said it was not validated for my computer, and to go to the manufacturer's site (which I've done already). So, not sure what to try next...
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by John_Ha »

Hagar Delest wrote:There is an Ctrl+Shift+R shortcut to refresh the screen. Thus somewhere, Writer has an influence on the display.
I don't think I ever saw the problem in another application than Writer.
I don't think that necessarily follows. It could be provided for those occasions when the displayed view gets damaged (perhaps another application window does not close properly) and invoking this forces the Writer view to be refreshed. I still cannot see how Writer can be at fault - surely Writer sends the instruction to display, say, character " a ", and the character " a " is then drawn according to the rules specified in the font file. Writer therefore cannot have any effect at the character level.

Searching with distorted text on screen gets 700,000 hits including ones like Random distorted text. What could cause this?? and How to fix a “distorted” display in Windows XP which have several suggestions for further diagnosis.
Last edited by John_Ha on Sun Jan 08, 2017 8:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by RoryOF »

What is the chipset, please?
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by John_Ha »

Another thought. Are you using a small font - say 8 point? There just are not enough pixels to display 8 point font correctly - see for example 8pt font not working in PowerPoint

Can you upload a one page example .odt file.

Also, when it next happens, do a screen copy by pressing PrtScr. This copies the screen to the clipboard. Paste it into an image editor (Paint will work) and save it as a PNG file. Upload it here or on a file share site if larger than 128 kBytes so we can see what is happening.
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by John_Ha »

LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by Hagar Delest »

Can't replicate this in my xubuntu machine but I'll try to make a screenshot next time I see it.
It seems very specific to Writer and nothing linked above covers this.
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by RoryOF »

Display is OK on my Xubuntu machines, whether using nVidia or ATI graphics cards. In all cases I am using three screen displays.
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alanack
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by alanack »

RoryOF wrote:What is the chipset, please?
Thanks, chipset is Intel GM965.

Someone mentioned an odt. screen shot. I am using this program saving stuff as .doc. Could this be a source of the problem?
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alanack
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by alanack »

John_Ha wrote:Another thought. Are you using a small font - say 8 point? There just are not enough pixels to display 8 point font correctly - see for example 8pt font not working in PowerPoint

Can you upload a one page example .odt file.

Also, when it next happens, do a screen copy by pressing PrtScr. This copies the screen to the clipboard. Paste it into an image editor (Paint will work) and save it as a PNG file. Upload it here or on a file share site if larger than 128 kBytes so we can see what is happening.
Thanks for your help here. I'm doing everything in 12 point, although there is a line at the top of every blog post in 8 point, I believe. I'll save a shot and post it for all to see. Thanks again.
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Re: Distorted lines of text

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I have checked through my computers: I thought I had a machine using Intel GM935, but it has gone to computer heaven.

My instinct would be to try the GM935 driver from Intel site, ignoring the warning that it had not been tested on Lenovo. If it failed or didn't improve the situation it could be removed by starting Windows in Safe Mode and reinstalling the older driver, or by making a Windows restore point before installation of the new driver and restoring to that point. John_Ha (privately) has told me that he does not recommend this course; however, it is what I would try. John and I have many years of computer experience - you may choose which path to follow.
 Edit: Another thought occurs to me: what is the screen resolution you are using? It may be that you are choosing a resolution beyond the native resolution of the laptop's screen, so that the graphics chip is having to exceed its capabilities. 
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by Bill »

Have you checked for hardware problems? I've seen a complete loss of signal to the monitor on one desktop system repaired just be removing and re-seating the RAM. Has the computer been cleaned regularly to minimize heat problems? Are the cable connections tight?

Does the problem occur at all times or only after the computer has warmed up? Has it always happened on this computer or only started recently?
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by John_Ha »

alanack wrote: I am using this program saving stuff as .doc. Could this be a source of the problem?
No because it is a display problem - it goes away on scrolling.

See [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for permanent unsaved changes to format and why you should always work in and save files as .odt.
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by John_Ha »

In small, 8 point text imagine one line appears on the screen with the bottom of the character exactly vertically aligned with the pixel. Another line may be placed with the bottom of the character vertically aligned half way between two pixels. The two identical characters will be rendered differently and will look different. The bigger the character, the more pixels per character, so the less the effect.

Does scrolling by a tiny amount fix the broken line and break a different line? Is there a regular vertical gap between broken lines?
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Re: Distorted lines of text

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John_Ha wrote:Does scrolling by a tiny amount fix the broken line and break a different line? Is there a regular vertical gap between broken lines?
I think I see the same problem as OP so here are my findings:
- Scrolling does fix the glitch, it does not break another line. Waiting a few seconds can fix the glitch also (it just happened to today).
- It occurs rather randomly for me. Can't replicate right now. But it occurred to me today with a text in Arial 10, zoom was 110%. It was a 10MB document (around 1,000 pages, mainly tables)
- Can't tell right now if it occurs when I switch back from another application to Writer or when I scroll in the document.
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by alanack »

Does scrolling by a tiny amount fix the broken line and break a different line? Is there a regular vertical gap between broken lines?[/quote]

First question, scrolling (moving all the text) does not fix the defect. But moving the text up or down within the document (setting the cursor above the text and hitting return once, moving everything down one line) does fix the problem. And when I return the text to its original position it remains okay.
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Re: Distorted lines of text

Post by Bill »

RoryOF wrote:My instinct would be to try the GM935 driver from Intel site, ignoring the warning that it had not been tested on Lenovo. If it failed or didn't improve the situation it could be removed by starting Windows in Safe Mode and reinstalling the older driver, or by making a Windows restore point before installation of the new driver and restoring to that point.
I haven't done it recently, but there's a way to roll back to the previous driver that may be faster than reinstalling or using a restore point. Open the Device Manager, then right-click the newly installed driver in the Device Manager and select Properties. On the Properties window, select the Driver tab and click "Roll Back Driver". A computer restart may be necessary after the settings are changed.
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