MLS 3.0 Issue: Screen font

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
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aebrown
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#11

Post by aebrown »

rmrichesjr wrote:Gack! (... personal opinion of the blurry 3.0 font in the screenshot ...)

I hope there's a user option to disable the blurring of text. I guess I'll have a message to send to support if I can't find an option.

At least for me, blurry text makes my eyes go buggy. The eyes try to focus, but they can't focus on something that's blurry no matter what the eyes do. The added futile effort can trigger significant contact lens discomfort and physical eye irritation.
That is an accurate screen shot from my stake's computer, so if you think it is blurry, you probably will be frustrated with MLS 3.0. To my eye, I wouldn't describe it as blurry, but as is readily apparent from 4 different reactions already, it is certainly a matter of personal preference.

In any case, there is no option at present in MLS 3.0 to change the font, but it is still in beta, so who knows what may still be added?
russellhltn
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#12

Post by russellhltn »

WenU wrote:Good question. It's a standard (?) Dell LCD.
Just as a note, when you run a LCD screen, it's best to run the computer at the native resolution of the screen. Otherwise, you end up with results that look like your screen got "faxed". LCD screens have what I call "hard pixels" and the monitor has to line itself up with what the computer is sending. It can't do that very well if the computer's screen settings doesn't match what the monitor is. Even then, there are adjustments that need to be made to the monitor to make things line up properly.

Clearly the fonts are different. But that doesn't rule out a combination of problems that are making you go "yuck!"
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russellhltn
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#13

Post by russellhltn »

Alan_Brown wrote:I have attached screen shots of MLS 2.9.4 and MLS 3.0 from the same machine
Just as a note, I found I had to unzip the file, save the PNGs and then open them in Paint. If I just tried to click on it, it opened in "Window Picture and Fax Viewer" which distorted the image enough that the issues were not visible.

Over all, I think I like the older font better. It's crisper, even if it is a bit "blocky".
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schestev
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#14

Post by schestev »

No.
Our stake is not on the Beta program...but it notified us and downloaded what was supposed to be a 2.9.4 "update". After the reboot and much churning to update the database to the new format, it is now proudly displaying version 3.0...goody.

We should not have gotten this update.
Oh, and the new font? Somewhere between "ratty" and not so crisp as before (personal opinion). But that we can live with. Has anyone found anything else with it that truly is a problem?

--- Steve
lajackson
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#15

Post by lajackson »

ScheStev wrote:We should not have gotten this update.
Oh, and the new font? Somewhere between "ratty" and not so crisp as before (personal opinion). But that we can live with. Has anyone found anything else with it that truly is a problem?
I do not like the font. And my optometrist stake president said it was blurry. As for real problems, I think there is one for stakes, but that will be for another thread.
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iamdavid
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#16

Post by iamdavid »

I can probably live with the font.

I notice also there is a change in the layout of the Message section, which now looks more like an email Inbox/Outbox arrangement.

[Editor's Note: I moved the issue relating to name search to a new thread MLS 3.0 Issue: Name Search.]
bretangie
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I experienced two different issues with MLS 3.0

#17

Post by bretangie »

After rebooting I noticed that the text font within MLS had changed to a point where it was difficult to read. Could not find a fix.

[Editor's note: this issue was split out from the original post.]
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aebrown
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#18

Post by aebrown »

bretangie wrote:After rebooting I noticed that the text font within MLS had changed to a point where it was difficult to read. Could not find a fix.
See this post for a hint about proper settings for LCD monitors. I suspect that the new anti-aliased fonts may look significantly worse when viewed in a non-native resolution for an LCD monitor.
rmrichesjr
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#19

Post by rmrichesjr »

bretangie wrote:After rebooting I noticed that the text font within MLS had changed to a point where it was difficult to read. Could not find a fix.
...
Alan_Brown wrote:See this post for a hint about proper settings for LCD monitors. I suspect that the new anti-aliased fonts may look significantly worse when viewed in a non-native resolution for an LCD monitor.
While using native resolution with LCD monitors is important, as shown in this screenshot posted by someone else, http://tech.lds.org/forum/attachment.ph ... 1244910531, the anti-aliased fonts are quite blurry by themselves. To view them, I saved the zip file to disk, unpacked the image files, viewed them with Firefox, then used xmag to accurately enlarge the details. Other image viewer programs could be used to show the font blurring. I haven't seen MLS 3.0 myself but assume the screenshot is accurate.

I have found in other venues that blurred (anti-aliased) fonts cause my eyes to struggle to focus. The effort fails, because the font is blurry no matter what the eye does. I find the extra futile effort can trigger significant contact lens discomfort and eye irritation. If MLS is indeed using blurred (anti-aliased) fonts, there needs to be a MLS-user option to use normal, non-anti-aliased fonts.
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aebrown
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#20

Post by aebrown »

FYI, I moved some posts to this thread from another thread so that all the MLS 3.0 screen font issues will be in a single thread.

As for the topic of anti-aliasing, I did some research, and found that there are some people (both experts and regular folks) who say that anti-aliasing is very helpful and reduces eye strain as compared to unaliased fonts. There are other people (both experts and regular folks) who say that anti-aliasing can cause horrible eye strain.

It's clearly not a topic where we can debate the merits and tell people that whichever choice is made, their eyes will feel better -- this issue seems to impact people in different ways. Even the differences in descriptions are interesting -- some people call these fonts "blurry" or "ratty" or "clunky" and others call them "smooth" or "terrific" or "nice".

So this seems to be an issue that can't be resolved, except to go back to the old font (which will seem like a step back to some, since it will increase eye strain for some), or to provide an option for selecting which font will be used. Even that option has challenges, since different users of a single MLS installation may have different preferences based on their different physiological reactions.

I suspect that it's an idle curiosity for the vast majority of users either way, but that for some small set of users it could be a noticeable real problem.
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