burkley@cod.NOSC.MIL (V. J. Burkley) (11/02/90)
A few days ago I posted requesting information on whether (and if so how)
it was possible to change the size of fonts and icons Windows uses. I wanted
them larger because I find them hard to read when using my ATI card at the
resolutions higher than VGA. I am writing now because I got several
contradictory responses and so I believe there is some warrant for posting the
correct answer to the net.
Technically there is no way to have Windows arbitrarily change the size of
the fonts and icons. The images are pixel mapped, so increasing the number
of pixels causes a corresponding decrease in the size of the displayed images.
Practically there is a way to increase the size of the displayed fonts.
In short, you want to use the 8514/a fonts that are included with Windows.
These are designed to be used at 1024 x 768 so are larger than the VGA fonts.
The way I went about installing the 8514/a fonts for use with my ATI card
was as follows:
1. Run the ATI program to setup the appropriate Windows driver on a floppy.
2. Run the Windows setup program outside of Windows. Change the display option
to 8514/a. Windows will need the original Windows disks. Windows will then
load the appropriate fonts into your system sub-directory.
3. Run the setup program again this time changing the display option to the
'other' choice and install the appropriate ATI driver.
4. Edit the system.ini file with a text editor (notepad works fine). Change
these lines:
fixedfon.fon=vgafix.fon fixedfon.fon=8514fix.fon
oemfonts.fon=vgaoem.fon to oemfonts.fon=8514oem.fon
fonts.fon=vgasys.fon fonts.fon=8514sys.fon
restart Windows and your ready to roll.
I found the difference quite worth the effort. The text is still slightly
too small at 1024 x 768 but at 800x600 its great. Thanks to all those who
responded but special thanks to
Kevin White (white@csvax.cs.ukans.edu), University of Kansas
and
cms2839@ultb.isc.rit.edu (C.M. Stuntz )
for the info on using the 8514 fonts. My gut tells me there is probably a
way of making your own fonts to replace the 8514. I will look into this
matter and post if I find a solution.
-Joe Burkley
burkley@cod.nosc.mil