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iPad screen NOT great for smaller fonts

naujoks

naujoks

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 6, 2008
297
59
London, UK
While the iPad screen is great in brightness and colour saturation, I'm pretty disappointed with how bad smaller fonts look when browsing. I constantly try to zoom/pinch to find a non blurry size, but usually without success.
The reason being the smaller number of dpi of course (ca. 130 compares to 160 on the iPhone screen).
In my view this is the biggest hardware problem/letdown of the iPad.
 
naujoks said:
While the iPad screen is great in brightness and colour saturation, I'm pretty disappointed with how bad smaller fonts look when browsing. I constantly try to zoom/pinch to find a non blurry size, but usually without success.
The reason being the smaller number of dpi of course (ca. 130 compares to 160 on the iPhone screen).
In my view this is the biggest hardware problem/letdown of the iPad.
Click to expand...

One of my biggest issues with the iPad also.
 
naujoks said:
Guess you're easier to please then.
Click to expand...

Yes, and that's the problem. Some people will notice, and others won't. Neither of you are wrong, but I wish the people who didn't notice WERE wrong!!!!

I hate the crappy, pixelated fonts on the iPad, too, and especially on the iPhone. Hopefully the new iPhone will solve that with its likely-at-this-point 960x640 resolution display. Then you'll probably see, with any luck, a 4096x3072 iPad next year. Oh one can dream, can't they? :)
 
I suppose I'm not as fussy as some people. I don't notice anything and am completely happy with the screen for all font sizes.
 
I have the same complaint as the poster, always trying to pinch in and out to find a readable text size.

I mean, the blurred text can be read, easily, but it's still not comfortable enough.

Is this something that can be fixed with the current screen? Obviously the DPI will stay the same, but perhaps another kind of antialiasing could make a difference.

I have to say this is most notable in Safari, with the smaller fonts.
 
noticed this also. I read web pages mostly in landscape, its not so bad, then. But yes, the resolution could be better. Interesting to see that iPad competitors mostly have even lower resolutions.
 
This is why I always browse the web in landscape orientation. I don't know how people can deal with portrait, the text becomes too small and difficult to read.
 
i have issues with the text when in iBooks or Kindle apps. It's not so much that there is a problem with the text, but rather, how far away I have to hold the iPad away from my eyes to not notice the pixels. I fully believe that the IPS screens in the iPad are on par with those in laptops... no issues with the sharpness, color, contrast or resolution EXCEPT that the recommended distance for optimal use is about 18 inches to 2 feet from your eyes. Anything closer, and you begin to notice the pixels.

Obviously, this is a marketing point and a benefit for the Retina display for iPhone 4.

My real question, is how many complaints would there be had Apple not introduced the Retina Display for iPhone 4 and not brought to light the inherent deficiencies for standard IPS LCD displays (that we have used in laptops and monitors for years without complaint)
 
thatisme said:
My real question, is how many complaints would there be had Apple not introduced the Retina Display for iPhone 4 and not brought to light the inherent deficiencies for standard IPS LCD displays (that we have used in laptops and monitors for years without complaint)
Click to expand...
See thread above, while the screen is great and has a higher dpi than most laptops the OS uses full pixel antialising of fonts rather than the subpixel rendering we are used to.
 
I have some issues with smaller fonts looking blurry but what I've found is that it's mostly just certain small groups of letters and I think that the reason is that they're behind a particularly intrusive fingerprint at the time, if I scroll them a bit, or clean that bit of the screen, then they get clearer.

- Julian
 
Yes there is a problem

naujoks said:
While the iPad screen is great in brightness and colour saturation, I'm pretty disappointed with how bad smaller fonts look when browsing. I constantly try to zoom/pinch to find a non blurry size, but usually without success.
The reason being the smaller number of dpi of course (ca. 130 compares to 160 on the iPhone screen).
Click to expand...

Clearly the iPad font rendering is poor. But I don't think this has much to do with dpi -- note that the 13" MB(P) has a much lower dpi than the iPad, but is free of this problem.

I hope this will get a software fix. It's really a shame, and doesn't show off what the machine is capable of doing.

FWIW, I notice that the fonts are a little easier to deal with if I read at an angle of around 40-50 degrees from head-on.
 
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