Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!news From: marcel@cs.caltech.edu (Marcel van der Goot) Newsgroups: comp.text.tex Subject: Re: tex dvi Previewer for Xwindows Keywords: previewer, dvipage, anti-aliasing Message-ID: <1991Jan9.224211.11584@nntp-server.caltech.edu> Date: 9 Jan 91 22:42:11 GMT References: <139@dogmelb.dog.oz.au> <1991Jan9.182924.1523@Neon.Stanford.EDU> Sender: news@nntp-server.caltech.edu Organization: California Institute of Technology (CS dept) Lines: 35 Nntp-Posting-Host: stun3h.caltech.edu In <1991Jan9.182924.1523@Neon.Stanford.EDU> Tomas G. Rokicki (rokicki@Neon.Stanford.EDU) writes, in response to by Steven Smith (smith@zeus.harvard.edu): > Unfortunately, at the low resolutions previewing is normally done at > (72 to 150 dpi), the feature size of the characters is about the same > size as the pixels being used to display them. Thus, using low-pass > filtering tends to blur out the features, rather than reduce the > ragged edges. > > In other words, low-pass filtering `blurs' the image, and my eyes at > least get `frustrated' trying to focus on the characters. > > At resolutions of 300 dpi and above, low pass filtering does seem to > make the display look better, but not many screens can show an entire > page at 300 dpi. I don't know what the resolution of a sun-3/60 is, but certainly not 300 dpi (that's the resolution of our laser printer). Nevertheless, I find that I can comfortably read a whole TeX page, set in 10 points (but 12 pt is easier), as it is displayed by dvipage. Using grey pixels for pixels that should be partially black seems to me to cause much less frustration (of the eyes as well as of me) than all the artifacts introduced by displaying the text directly. (Anti-aliasing is quite common in all computer graphics applications, so I think I'm not alone in this preference.) Also, if you want to see details (as opposed to judging the overall look of the page) you can display at a higher resolution (dvipage has 4) and look at just a partial page. I have seen xdvi on the same computer, and really, it doesn't even come close to dvipage. Marcel van der Gooot marcel@vlsi.cs.caltech.edu