global zoom please?

I have given myself a goldilocks problem. I have just bought a 16" hd display (actually a tv) to replace my previous 1280×1024 display. The extra screen area is great, as is the small form factor, but the default fonts and icon sizes are just a little to small. I have tried various screen resolutions(on the pi) and aspect ratio settings(on the TV), but nothing quite does the trick. Is there any setting within riscos that can change the default font size and icon sizes whilst retaining the resolution of 1920×1080?

I am running riscos 5.28 on a rspberry pi 4b.

Thanks, Colin

Not that I am aware of Colin.

Also, a “global zoom” as you call it, would need few things to work correctly:

• Yes Font DPI configurable, but also:
• Icons Sprites either in a larger format or a switch all-together to a non-raster format like some other modern desktop has done. Probably in RISC OS, to maintain compatibility with the past, it’s easier to add a new !SpritesXY to the apps and a new set in ROM if there is space
• WIMP capable of drawing windows with larger sections (for instance the titlebar) to host a larger DPI Font.

It ought to work OK in EX0 EY0 mode, but then things might be too big for you.

I have tested Fireworkz with those eig factors, and supply Sprites11 so it looks pretty, as does the window furniture.

thanks Paulo and Stuart,

I am not sure what EXO and EY0 are (still very new to riscos). I will look into that later. However I have just investigated further into strongarm settings(which I should have done weeks back), and found out how to change font sizes, so that should keep me from having to visit the opticians for few months more.

Is there any setting within riscos that can change the default font size and icon sizes whilst retaining the resolution of 1920×1080?

I’d ask whether this really is what you want. If you need bigger fonts and icons, I’d expect you to need everything to be that bit bigger. Which means that I think you might get a best fit to your needs by trying different resolutions; maybe something with 1600-ish pixels across.

It’s possible to set the minimum font size in NetSurf, and it may be possible to set the text size in Zap (I don’t know), but that’s pretty limited help to you. I don’t think there is any way to change icon sizes.

I’m not sure if I could cope with 1920*1024 on a 16" display either, but my solution has been to buy a 27" monitor. Is that out of the question for you?

I’m not sure if I could cope with 1920*1024 on a 16" display

I have VNC of a 1920×1200 RO display to my 10" tablet sat on my lap about a foot away. ;-)

EX0 EY0 is the RISC OS equivalent of High DPI / retina mode on other machines, in that it doubles size of fonts and graphics. You would use it on a 4K display to give you the same size elements as a Full HD screen, but with smoother fonts and more detailed icons. However on a 1920×1080 screen, this would give you the equivalent of 960×540 which is a bit cramped.

The other alternative is to use the AnyMode module which will drive the screen at its native resolution, but will allow you to use a lower resolution mode to get larger fonts and graphics, say 1600×900 or 1280×800. Unfortunately this wont look as crisp as native resolution.

Sigh, all these replies mentioning EX0 EY0, yet no one has actually told Colin how to do it!

Click the middle (menu) mouse button over the screen icon in the bottom right corner of the desktop. Slide over the Mode entry which should show something like “X1920 Y1080 C16M”. Add “EX0 EY0” to the end of that and click OK. Everything will double in size.

There’s currently no GUI way to make that permanent (AFAIK) so to make that it active at boot, add the same bits to $.!Boot.Choices.Boot.PreDesk.Configure.Monitor

but my solution has been to buy a 27" monitor. Is that out of the question for you?

I’m not sure, the OP having just bought a TV/monitor, that suggesting buying a doutent display device is particularly helpful…

I can understand that FullHD in a 16" display might be a bit small, but this is down to the size of the pixels in the television (to give an indication, I have 1440×960 in a 21" monitor and I find that small).
It’s easier to get away with larger resolutions on smaller TVs since you’re rarely looking at a solid fixed image on a TV…unless your service is down. Let’s face it, Karen Gillan looks good regardless of the viewport size…

The options are:

• Use EX0 and EY0 to make things bigger (with effectively half the resolution).
• Set the Pi to output FullHD always and get the GPU to scale the output, then pick a smaller mode which will be scaled up to fit.
• Or, yes, buy a bigger monitor (but not everybody has the budget for stuff like that).

and it may be possible to set the text size in Zap (I don’t know)

You can. StrongEd too. If I remember correctly, you can even do it in Edit. Plus changing the actual font used in all cases. But this doesn’t help much for icons and the Filer and so on, so it’s useful as an option for crappy eyes ¹, but that’s about it.

¹ My eyes are getting worse. I’m now at the point where the monitor is a bit blurry with them on, and not much doutent with them off. And before anybody asks, I’m not going the varifocal route – I like big lenses and I make use of all of it (simpler to roll an eyeball than turn the head), so having different focal points will drive me nuts.

Hello all,
thank you all for your suggestions. I will look at them all in time, especially the EX0 EY0 stuff.

I don’t want a larger monitor, as I already have a windows all-in-one HD on the same desk, plus there are other advantages to having this small TV on the desk as well (built in freesat plus DVD for the nostalgic).

For now, I will stick with a larger font in Strongarm. I can get used to the rest. And yes, varifocals suck for screen reading.

@Colin: You have referred to ‘StrongArm settings’ in your posts. The StrongArm was a type of processor from the past, as it was a RISC PC upgrade. Your Raspberry Pi has nothing to do with StrongArm, so I am intrigued what settings you are referring to!

And yes, varifocals suck for screen reading.

+1. Some years ago I got varifocals on a risk-free trial basis. I absolutely hated them. At distances, the top half of the field of view is OK; everything else is fuzzy. At close range, only a circle of about 3cm diameter is in focus, which means you have to work very hard to take in all the screen.

Since then I’ve had one distance pair and two close pairs of single-focus lenses. The reading glasses live one pair upstairs and one pair downstairs.

< offtopic >

Varifocals are handy for things like driving, where you need to be able to see where you are going at the same time as how fast you are doing it.

My latest reading glasses are sort of varifocal – screen distance in the upper region and keyboard distance in the lower part. I’ve forgotten what the optician called them – something like super readers?

@martin, sorry, of course I meant to say StrongED. It’s not the varifocals to blame, just the varimentals in this case.

I have VNC of a 1920×1200 RO display to my 10" tablet sat on my lap about a foot away. ;-)

Ha-ha! I have VNC of a 2560×1440 Pi4 display to my 6.4" Oppo Reno 4. And it’s doable (with some scrolling).

And it’s doable (with some scrolling).

Not just doable, I actually do most evenings from my mini.m two floors away, and no scrolling. ;-)

Hello All, I have made a further modification to my setup (eventually), by adding these lines
Set Wimp$FontSize 224
configure Wimp$font 0
to the predesktop obey file in Boot.Choices,Boot. I had to guess about that location. Luckily I was OK this time.
I now can read the screen without too much strain, and without distorting too many dialog windows with overlarge text.

Thank you @Bryan Hogan for information about how to do things, as well as what to do. That is just the sort of answer that I need. I have been a hobby programmer since the C64, but never on a riscos/BBC type machine, so HOW TO information is really important to me.