Blurry and not crisp? Is this how it is for others?

[LadyPenelope]

Hi everyone. I am new to Scrivener and just downloaded my free trial and even sat through (most) of the tutorial! My problem with the software is that the text seems to be ever so slightly blurry. It lacks the crispness of other text on my machine (a Lenovo Yoga 520).

It all looks rather old-fashioned! And unfortunately, compares very poorly to how MS Word shows on my laptop - which is a pain because I want to switch from Word to Scrivener.

Does anyone know if this is typical? I assume that since I downloaded the free trial only a day ago, I am using the latest version. Or do people just put up with the poorer clarity for the other functionality?

[steveshank]

It all looks rather old-fashioned!

It is old fashioned. It is the latest full release, but for over a year Literature and Latte have been working on the new Version 3 which will be comparable to their Mac product. It looks new. Lots of new features. Many of us have switched already to the Beta of that product, so we aren’t putting up with anything. But, though stable, some features don’t exist and if you need those, you won’t be happy with a product that doesn’t have them implemented yet.

As for the fuzziness. This is normally an issue with 3 factors.

1. An older programming environment used to create the product.
2. Windows handles high DPI screens very very poorly.
3. People thinking that if they get a screen with lots of pixels, more than 1920 x 1200, then it’ll be better. Only to find that in Windows, the fonts become too small to see, so they need to run it at 150 or 250 percent using half the pixels. Then Windows doesn’t work well with the program to work out the fix and either Windows appear tiny with “ant fonts” too small to read, or fuzzy.

Essentially, it is a mistake to buy a computer monitor with more than 1920x1200 pixels because you’ll run into programs where it won’t work properly.

To help mitigate these issues, Windows has lots of settings to try and fix it. Try searching for “high dpi screens, fuzzy windows” or something like that and you’ll get lots of options.

Here’s a solution for Adobe products for their products on a lenovo Yoga:
danantonielli.com/adobe-app … plays-fix/

Here are some options from Microsoft:
blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/ … ywB0FKG.97

I’ve had success with clients by right clicking on the exe file and selecting properties, then compatibility and over riding the High DPI scaling behavior and shifting it to “Scaling performed by: System (Enhanced)” - You might search for that phrase. Also, under the same properties menu there is a setting to have Windows fix the fuzzy font problem with high dpi screens. Probably searching for windows fix high dpi fuzzy - would yield step by step instructions.

Essentially, it is likely to be years before Windows programs can handle high DPI screens properly. Some programs can, some can’t. See if any of the above fixes help the current version display.

Honestly, I’m not sure about the beta version. I’m afraid to use a high dpi screen in Windows. I use too many different programs and get frustrated if I can’t see. I’d suggest you try out the Beta and see how it looks.

Just install the Beta separate folder with a separate name and keep your files separate.

[Tribalrose]

Actually, there are a whole lot of us who wrote books in the version of Scrivener for Windows you downloaded as a trial and prior iterations just fine, were never unhappy with it, and still aren’t. Since you’re just starting with the program, you are unlikely to miss the features coming in the upgrade since the basic program is pretty much as it ever was. Everyone is different, of course, but what lured me to Scriv was the ability to break down a novel into chapters and scenes, move those pieces around easily, color code things like POV, and sort out those things for editing if necessary.

The version you’ve downloaded for your trial is on two Windows machines of mine, although admittedly both are a few years old and running Windows 7, and Scrivener doesn’t look blurry compared to other programs, so I suspect you do have some settings that could be tweaked to improve things for you. There have been threads on this in the past, so you might search for them, or maybe someone who understands the problem will chime in.

And you could, as Steve suggested, download the latest Windows beta and see how you feel about that. It would be a free trial that could help you decide too. If you do that, you just need to make sure you set your backups carefully, know where they are and how to access them (it’s amazing how many post here who don’t) and set up a second backup scheme. Which is a good thing anyway.

Says a very cautious computer user.

[schoolmann]

I posted this solution that worked for me in another thread. Seems to have worked for several others as well. Steveshank may have been referring to it in his response:

• From your Windows desktop (NOT from within Scrivener) right-click on your Scrivener icon.
• Choose “Properties” from the pop-up menu.
• Choose the “Compatability” tab.
• Under “Settings,” check the box labeled, “Disable display scaling on high DPI settings”
• Click “OK”

You can now reopen Scrivener. Your fonts should display normally.

Hope this helps.

[jesuslpgc]

@schoolmann

I posted this solution that worked for me in another thread. Seems to have worked for several others as well. Steveshank may have been referring to it in his response:

• From your Windows desktop (NOT from within Scrivener) right-click on your Scrivener icon.
• Choose “Properties” from the pop-up menu.
• Choose the “Compatability” tab.
• Under “Settings,” check the box labeled, “Disable display scaling on high DPI settings”
• Click “OK”

You can now reopen Scrivener. Your fonts should display normally.

Hope this helps.

This is the best solution, ignore the rest.

[roaringk]

@schoolmann

I posted this solution that worked for me in another thread. Seems to have worked for several others as well. Steveshank may have been referring to it in his response:

• From your Windows desktop (NOT from within Scrivener) right-click on your Scrivener icon.
• Choose “Properties” from the pop-up menu.
• Choose the “Compatability” tab.
• Under “Settings,” check the box labeled, “Disable display scaling on high DPI settings”
• Click “OK”

You can now reopen Scrivener. Your fonts should display normally.

Hope this helps.

Fixed a long-running annoyance, so thank you. The windows commands weren’t quite the same so dug a little bit deeper to find a box talking about high DPI, checked it, and all much crisper. Great.

[Tom_Lewis]

Genius! Thank you!

[ariek]

I also had this problem and followed “roaringk” instruction:

They worked but with some changes. Here is my suggestion that worked perfectly:

• From your Windows desktop (NOT from within Scrivener) right-click on your Scrivener icon.
• Choose “Properties” from the pop-up menu.
• Choose the “Compatability” tab.
• Under “Settings,” click “Change High DPI setting”.
• check "use this setting to fix scalling problem…
• check “override high DPI scalling…”
• “OK”, “Appply”.

You can now reopen Scrivener. Your fonts should display normally.

Hope this helps.
[/quote]
Fixed a long-running annoyance, so thank you. The windows commands weren’t quite the same so dug a little bit deeper to find a box talking about high DPI, checked it, and all much crisper. Great.
[/quote]

[carolemscott]

Oh, thank goodness I found this thread! Downloaded Scrivener for Windows at the weekend and was beginning to get headaches because of the blurriness. My Mac is kaput and so am using my work windows puter for it and was a bit stressed thinking that I wouldn’t be able to continue using Scrivener. But going into the properties and choosing ‘override high DPI scaling behaviour’ from the advanced DPI settings menu sorted it immediately. Thanks everyone!