IBM Support

Blurred text and/or strange-looking fonts and/or incorrect display layout (inside Controller classic client) caused by using display scaling (not using 100% scaling = 96 DPI) - triggered by Controller not being High DPI aware

Troubleshooting


Problem

End user's display (monitor/screen) is high resolution (for example 1920 x 1080), however they have a relatively small monitor (for example 15.6").
  • Therefore this makes many/most font/text sizes appear physically small on the screen.
To make the words easier to read (less strain on the eye) the user has the Windows setting configured to scale the fonts larger (for example 125% of their original size).
  • This causes many of their local applications (for example Microsoft Excel) to have easier-to-read writing/text
  • However, when using Controller (either locally or remotely - for example via MS Terminal Server) this causes the text (in the Controller classic client) to be blurry.
If the user tries to workaround the problem (by configuring Controller client to be not high DPI aware) some of the text/boxes appear corrupt/wrong (or in the 'wrong' place).

Symptom

Scale set to 125% (unsupported):
The text looks blurred, for example:
image-20191009110325-1
Scale set to 100% (supported):
The text looks sharp, for example:
image-20191009110349-2
Scale set to 125% (unsupported) but "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" is enabled:
Text is sharp (easy to read) but sometimes in the wrong position, for example:
image-20191009114307-2
Other symptoms:
For more examples of symptoms/problems related to this setting, see separate IBM Technotes: 1074248, 1883699, 1074132

Document Location

Worldwide

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Document Information

Modified date:
09 May 2025

UID

ibm11079895