Quark Forums

In all prior Quark versions, when I opened files, what appeared was "What You See Is What You Get". When viewed as "Actual Size", a 1" box looked like a 1" box. Recently, I upgraded to Quark 7.2 and iMac Intel - 24" flat screen. NOW, when I view Quark 7.2 files in "Actual Size", a 1" box looks like a 3/4 " box onscreen. "Actual Size" is NOT the Actual Size, and is so small that it's giving me headaches and bad eye strain. In order to display the actual size, I must use magnify & find exact percentage (usually 138%) to make 1" look like 1". PLUS I must set exact magnification EACH & EVERY time. What happened to "WYSIWYG"? That was always the best part about MACs & Quarks. Is there a work around for that? I'm using Quark 7.2 on an Intel iMac with a 24" flat screen. System Tiger OS 10.4.9
Thank you!
LK

I've always found the so-called WYSIWYG view in any program is very dependent on the screen, its resolution (usually 72dpi, but sometimes 96dpi) and its physical size in pixels.

On my old G5 with a 20¨ Formac screen running at 1,600 pixels wide (can't remember the height) I had to use around 125% to get pretty close to 'actual' size. But on a Mac at work using an Apple 20¨ screen running a different pixel size I needed more like 115%.

Only time I've seen 100% give nearly actual size was on an old G4 coupled with a LaCie 20¨ CRT.

So sorry, it'll vary. However, once you've worked out the size required, as you have, to view actual size all you have to do is type it in to the magnification box in the bottom left of the window. Sure it's a bit slower than hitting cmd-0 but it'll do. Shame XPress doesn't have a way to remember views like Illustrator does!

Greg

Hello Greg,
Thank you for your time and info. So I guess using a 24" flat screen monitor is the problem. I tried changing monitor settings and the screen either made images & text pixilate, or screen size shrunk leaving a big black border around the screen making it look like a 15" monitor. Makes me wish I had my old CRT monitor, This is lots of extra work, esp when reviewing and/or switching quark files. Also, the same tiny text appears when I open Quicken, Word, Safari, Mail, etc.etc. Big problem, esp when Quicken won't magnify and others all have to be set at different odd numbered %s & don't remember their view settings either. Well, let me know if you ever hear of a solution!
Thanks again. LK

Whilst I love flat screens - especially at the end of a long day - in some respects they are severely limited in comparison to CRTs.

The latter could cleanly display any pixel size screen and not lose quality. The former, the flat screens, always have an optimum display size and though they can show other sizes too these will never be perfect. This is because they are limited to physical pixels so, obviously, if the display is 1,600 pixels wide then a computer generated image of 1,600 pixels wide will be perfect as it will use 1 physical pixel per image pixel. But a computer generated size of, say, 1,000 pixels width will look blurred. 800 would work as the monitor could then show 2 pixels per 1 computer generated one. See?

Sadly this does mean compromise where things like WYSIWYG are concerned - for me that is no problem though as, like I said, flat screens are just so much better for long term use than CRTs.

Best of luck,

Greg

I really need to focus on a solution, not excuses, since this is really damaging my eyes & am starting to miss deadlines. Can anyone out there direct me to a solution of some sort for this problem? Maybe a different graphics card or some other ingenious fix?
Thanks, LK

That's the point - there isn't a solution. You need to run a flat screen at its optimum resolution so that you have 1 'real' pixel to 1 generated pixel otherwise it will look blurred.

On this laptop, for example, 1440x900 is optimum and everything is crisp, but XPress needs around 150% to show a page at actual size.

However I can use many other sizes for this little 15" screen - the next in the list is 1280x800 and guess what, every one of the other options are slightly blurred. No amount of fiddling with anti-aliasing will fix that. It's because the monitor has to use more than one physical pixel per generated pixel, as I've said. Now one of those available resolutions will probably allow XPress to show actual size at 100% accurately, but I'd have to lose crispness. Not acceptable - but maybe it is to you, so try different screen sizes.

Long and short of it is once you know what percentage really gives actual size, use that. 100% will only be 'actual' at certain screen sizes and that will vary on different monitors. It's not a bug, it's just how flatscreens work. If you really can't live with that, get a CRT!

Good luck,

Greg

Yes, there is a fix. Someone sent a fix, but I lost the link. SO, can anyone help me locate the support application, script, or fix that makes Quark "Resolution Independent"? If you don't know about this fix, please don't respond as I'm missing deadlines due to eye strain.

Thanks, LK

Sorry you're losing deadlines. I'll say no more apart from to ask if you find what you're looking for please post it here.

All the best, hope you get everything done in time!

Greg

OLd CRT monitors are true 72 dpi. The new flat screens are usually 88-96 dpi, so images are smaller.

In my case I found out that I need to enlarge the image to 123% to get it right.

What I've done in quark is setting the magnification tool to have increments of 23%, so that when I hit Command-Plus it shows the image at 123% which is as close as I can get to real size.

Neat Ami! I salute you and will look to copy you immediately!

Greg

On Quark Windows we can change the DPI value from Preference>Display, but not on Mac

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1313054&tstart=90
Till then "set scaling factors for each application", just like Greg said.

AD:

On Quark Windows we can change the DPI value from Preference>Display, but not on Mac

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1313054&tstart=90
Till then "set scaling factors for each application", just like Greg said.

Can't take the credit for that - it was Ami's neat idea.

Greg

AD:

On Quark Windows we can change the DPI value from Preference>Display, but not on Mac

I'm not with you. One can change display's resolution via the same path. This said, you won't see the resolution in dpi's but in pixels for the length and for the width.
A little trick to get the (appoximate?) dpi resolution of your display is to open Adobe Acrobat Standard or Pro (don't know about the Reader) and then open the Preferences. Under "Display", you'll see the actual resolution in dpi. From there, just calculate the ratio to get a real 100% scale on screen (100/72*AR).
Here is an AppleScript that will set the scale to your actual display resolution (to be set manually in the code). Save it then into your Scripts folder and assign a shortcut to it through System Prefs>Keyboard & Mouse...

[quote user=blue:49ad548117]tell[/color:49ad548117][/b] application "QuarkXPress Passport"
     tell document 1
          set view scale to 137.5
     end tell
end tell

It was
Quark >Preferences>Display >DPI
not System Preferences.

AD:

It was
Quark >Preferences>Display >DPI
not System Preferences.

All right! Sorry about this misunderstanding!