Database Develop

What density did you settle on?

Just curious now that we have had a good amount of time to mess with our NC tablets... What density did you settle on and why?
I am running the RC4 of CM7 and have tried 160, 161, 181, and 204 and still don't know which I like the best.
Did anyone find one they think worked the best for apps and also the looks of it and now have decided that you are going to keep it at a certain density from now on?
Just wondering what the masses are finding on it.

Where does one go to change the density on a cm7 build? I've heard this fixes some apps not fullscreening when downloaded from the market.

I prefer stock.. We have a high res screen (for its size), and we should use it that way. The icons look horrible at fisher price size... bleh. 160 for me.

I've learned to deal with the stock LCD density because I'm lazy, and don't want to change it every time I update. That being said, I've found that 210 not only looks good, but I could not replicate the market and app issues everyone was talking about. I personally like the larger objects, and being forced to have a limited amount of widgets and such makes the interface, honestly, minimalistic. If you do try that resolution out, please let me know if everything works as it should. I'm curious if it works for others.

I am on customized Nookie Froyo and using 200. The touch screen is smoother and responds better with 200. The larger icon is easier on my eyes. I switched back and forth between 160 and 200 for about three weeks. Finally settled on the 200.

Stock 161 for me.

for all the people having issues with densities, did they try disabling Compatibility mode?
i never had issues with Market, Maps, etc with changing LCD Density on any of my devices.
I use 160 on my Nook and 190 on my G2.

Faralon said:
Where does one go to change the density on a cm7 build? I've heard this fixes some apps not fullscreening when downloaded from the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use LCD Density from the Market to change density on the fly. I go between 190 and 200 as a good compromise since I still use the stock ereader stuff but haven't made it permanent yet.

CM7 RC4 with density 204 here.

I've used 140 on every custom ROM I've installed... I still keep it minimalistic though with 2 or 3 widgets on a single home screen.

Faralon said:
Where does one go to change the density on a cm7 build? I've heard this fixes some apps not fullscreening when downloaded from the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use an LCD Density app, I just edit /system/build.prop using RootExplorer's built-in text editor.

[Q] DPI in cyanogen 7

I hope someone knows the answer to this...
The DPI of the nook color is rated for 169dpi, yet the build.prop has it set to 161.
Changing it to the hardware correct value even solves some little graphics bugs. Like the "line on notification bar"
So why does it not match HW
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

As explained by dal:
dalingrin said:
Note that lcd_density is an integer value only. Additionally, when using mdpi, 160 is the default lcd density. Any other lcd density with mdpi involves interpolation. If you compare 160 and 169.x you can see that the images used for icons are significantly more blurry at 169.
The reason I chose 161 instead of 160 was to workaround a Market bug that caused the my apps list to fail to load. In my limited testing it seems Market 2.3.4 may have fixed the issue. If so, I plan to switch back to 160 which has the best image quality and best app compatiblity with the exception of Google Maps. However, 160 will need more testing with the latest Market to make sure the "my apps" list is completely fixed.
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Click to collapse
dalingrin said:
The problem with densities greater than 160 is the interpolation that must happen. I just checked for good measure and the icons are definitely not as sharp. Additionally, you will see artifacts from the interpolation such as gradients on the Gingerbread keyboard and the notification drop down.
In my testing I saw no difference in font rendering.
Keep in mind that another motivation for moving to 160 is that afaik, all apps scale properly to full screen. Any deviation from the mdpi standard 160 causes some apps not to scale to full screen. An example is Google Reader. If you click on an article to read, it will give you a libwebcoreview but it does not scale to full screen at >160.
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Click to collapse

fmkaiba said:
I hope someone knows the answer to this...
The DPI of the nook color is rated for 169dpi, yet the build.prop has it set to 161.
Changing it to the hardware correct value even solves some little graphics bugs. Like the "line on notification bar"
So why does it not match HW
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use 169. Despite what people think, 160 is the best value to use for the Nook. Anything other than 160 means extrapolation or interpolation must take place. This is why nearly every HDPI phone uses 240, not 231 or 248, despite their real world DPI. However, there is a bug in the Android Market @ 160 on tablet size screens. For now I have it set to 161 to get around that bug. I don't use 169 because icons and such are more blurry due to the extra extrapolation needed. Until Google fixes the market there isn't a good DPI for us to use. Each has its own problems, 161 has a line in the notification bar but sharp icons, 169 doesn't have a line in the notification bar but has blurry icons....etc

Dalingrin, are you aware of any ill effects from running lower DPIs, such as 140?
That's where I've had mine for months, and I love it. Then again, I'm also running at 1920x1080 on my 15" laptop.

I love this forum!
Thankyou for a clear and logical answer I couldn't get anywhere else!
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Sorry for necrothreading, just wanted to point out that Market 2.3.6 (from gapps 0613) still has a problem with My Apps @160dpi. :/
Rodney

What DPI do you use with CM7 on the Nook Color?

I just flashed CM7 on my Nook Color last night. While it looks and works great on the 7" screen I did notice some things were a bit too small and hard to read. You can always increase font sizes in specific applications but that's not a consistent solution to the problem. After experimenting with different DPIs, I found 187 to be okay but still a bit too small in some areas, 240 to be too large, and 204 to be just about perfect, allowing me to keep font sizes set to normal in applications and the handle on the notification tray remains in the center. Blurriness hasn't bothered me too much yet. I'm curious what values other people are using.
As an aside, why does increasing the DPI make elements larger and not the reverse? Thinking of it as "dots per inch," I would think more dots within an inch means a rendered element would fit into a smaller space...

Honestly, I've found the default 161 quite usable so I haven't played with it for quite some time.
Sent from my Apple IIe

hololight said:
Honestly, I've found the default 161 quite usable so I haven't played with it for quite some time.
Sent from my Apple IIe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto. 240 (and such) just create icons wayyyy to big for me. I have a high res screen, i want to use it as such.

I personally like 140, however you lose "My Apps" ability in the market at this DPI.

The default 161 with a different font applied works for me. (The font is mentone, in case you were wondering.)
I tried 180 for awhile but that screwed up the formatting on a lot of apps.

Default for me. Tried many others and they either made the icons look big and stupid or really screwed up formatting in some apps.

I've been using 187 for about a month now. I think it looks nice, and really helps with the close-to-edge unresponsiveness by having slightly bigger objects to poke. I enjoy spending unreasonable amounts of time crafting custom UI's, and certain setups really pop with higher LCD density settings. I ran 210 for a while combined with a really sleek super simple interface. Ended up scraping it because it required an insane amount of widgets and 500 megs of RAM just wasn't enough.
Play around with the popular settings. Personal preference trumps what ever you'll read here.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

I just stick with 161.
Still rocking the Incredible with the XDA Premium App.

I need to use 160 for some apps to go fullscreen (Google Reader & FieldRunners). But this kills My Apps in the market. Does anyone know a DPI that will scale these apps correctly and keep the market working 100%?

JonMayer said:
I need to use 160 for some apps to go fullscreen (Google Reader & FieldRunners). But this kills My Apps in the market. Does anyone know a DPI that will scale these apps correctly and keep the market working 100%?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fieldrunners works at any DPI if you turn off compatibility mode. The only fix for GoogleReader is to use a different program
Market works fine at 161+

Thanks for the info on the game. I'm going to reboot and try that out now. I used to love that game on my iPod Touch.
I figured the Reader app just hasn't been updated in forever is why. I'll stick with my 161 then. I like the size of everything on the screen and it's still comfortable for me to read.

I use the default setting..

If you have the new Market, I would recommend using 160.
160 will be the new default as soon as more folks get the update Market.

dalingrin said:
If you have the new Market, I would recommend using 160.
160 will be the new default as soon as more folks get the update Market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My first thought when the new Market appeared was, "OMG I hope it works at 160 so I can have both my Market and Google Reader working at the same time!"
And.... so far so good! Woooooooooooooot!

dalingrin said:
If you have the new Market, I would recommend using 160.
160 will be the new default as soon as more folks get the update Market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SiMi clock doesn't display correctly at 160.
It doesn't display correctly at 161, either, but it's worse at 160.
161 leaves a column of pixels unused on the right side in portrait, where the wallpaper shows through the clock's background.
160 makes the clock's background very thick, and overlaps my power button widget in landscape mode.
I've been using 169. This creates the least bit of widget overlap between the clock and power bar, and also makes the clock cover the entire row in portrait. It makes desktop icons a tad blurry, though. Everything else displays fine.

gadzooks64 said:
My first thought when the new Market appeared was, "OMG I hope it works at 160 so I can have both my Market and Google Reader working at the same time!"
And.... so far so good! Woooooooooooooot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to burst your balloon. After a couple of reboots, My apps disappears (just like before).

[Q] Lowering DPI?

What are you doing exactly when you lower it, and what do you get from it?
I saw a few threads about it but they're all procedures and instructions.

It just makes things on the screen smaller. You can therefore fit more stuff on the screen, if you are using a launcher that allows adjustable row/column settings.
Beware however that TouchWiz looks pretty nasty on non stock settings. Also the dialler and other bits and pieces won't display correctly. You can however adjust it back again.

It is most useful to me where it can display much more in the same screen area. Some apps are not multidpi friendly and do not show correctly, eg the dailer and some games.

nobnut said:
It just makes things on the screen smaller. You can therefore fit more stuff on the screen, if you are using a launcher that allows adjustable row/column settings.
Beware however that TouchWiz looks pretty nasty on non stock settings. Also the dialler and other bits and pieces won't display correctly. You can however adjust it back again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say "it just makes things on the screen smaller," is it the icons or other stuff onscreen getting smaller or the screen getting bigger? I'm using GoLauncher EX and I was wondering about that setting on custom rows/columns that goes up to 10. I was wondering how would that fit.
dchsub said:
It is most useful to me where it can display much more in the same screen area. Some apps are not multidpi friendly and do not show correctly, eg the dailer and some games.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So also I guess that's why a lot of the "lower DPI"-related threads are about looking for compatible apps. Thanks!
Do many people tweak their DPI? Can you share examples of significant advantages of doing so that's worth the hassle of looking for apps/themes that would work on the adjusted DPI? Thanks again!

nobnut said:
It just makes things on the screen smaller. You can therefore fit more stuff on the screen, if you are using a launcher that allows adjustable row/column settings.
Beware however that TouchWiz looks pretty nasty on non stock settings. Also the dialler and other bits and pieces won't display correctly. You can however adjust it back again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're everywhere, nobnut! (Sorry for the off-topic)
Anyway, I hope soon everything will be smooth when changing dpi (maybe CM port or ICS). It's really useful for us with good sighting, I've been using my HD2 at 160 dpi instead of 240 and it's not only neater on the homescreen but very useful in some apps (and a less toyish aspect )

I suddenly want to switch to 240 DPI but the effort scares me.
Found this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1369162&page=2
I don't like how it doesn't work for some apps as of now, though I never heard of Samsung ever accommodating DPI changes? That's why I didn't learn of this from somewhere else before the forums. :O

rerp said:
I suddenly want to switch to 240 DPI but the effort scares me.
Found this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1369162&page=2
I don't like how it doesn't work for some apps as of now, though I never heard of Samsung ever accommodating DPI changes? That's why I didn't learn of this from somewhere else before the forums. :O
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just try this app: https://market.android.com/details?...wxLDIxMiwiY29tLmlubm9kcm9pZC5kcGljaGFuZ2VyIl0.
It's easy as hell, you can try and then undo effortlessly. But I'm sticking to 320 until... until I try again 240

rerp said:
When you say "it just makes things on the screen smaller," is it the icons or other stuff onscreen getting smaller or the screen getting bigger? I'm using GoLauncher EX and I was wondering about that setting on custom rows/columns that goes up to 10. I was wondering how would that fit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything is smaller. Everything.
Yes, Go Launcher looks good at a lower dpi once you have set the rows and columns. Shortcuts, texts, widgets etc will all display as smaller.
For example O at 320 might look like o at 240.
To edit, there are apps to use (if you are noob ). The best way is to open the build.prop file in the 'system' folder, find the line ro.sf.lcd_density=320 and change the 320 to your value... then reboot.
Just remember the default value is 320 if you want to return again.

AzureD said:
Just try this app: https://market.android.com/details?...wxLDIxMiwiY29tLmlubm9kcm9pZC5kcGljaGFuZ2VyIl0.
It's easy as hell, you can try and then undo effortlessly. But I'm sticking to 320 until... until I try again 240
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nobnut said:
Everything is smaller. Everything.
Yes, Go Launcher looks good at a lower dpi once you have set the rows and columns. Shortcuts, texts, widgets etc will all display as smaller.
For example O at 320 might look like o at 240.
To edit, there are apps to use (if you are noob ). The best way is to open the build.prop file in the 'system' folder, find the line ro.sf.lcd_density=320 and change the 320 to your value... then reboot.
Just remember the default value is 320 if you want to return again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link but I don't think that changing the DPI itself is any difficult. It's cleaning up the possible mess after, with changing the incompatible apps. I've heard some of them won't work right on different DPIs. Is there a thread for that around here?
Also, I read one about S-Memo not working nicely, and I use that app a LOT, so I guess I'll be monitoring what they do in that thread too.
I do like how it looks like though. Makes me feel the phone is even bigger.

At 240 (default DPI for 800x480) "all" (can't tell for sure) apps will work. Everything also looks good since, again, it's the default Android DPI and some UI elements will look like crap if you set it to 260 or so. Try out the app and see if you like it. If not just reboot the phone and it'll be back to normal.
Sent from my iPad GT-N7000 using xda premium

Wait... Need some clarification about this... I've gotten some games in the market before and I uninstalled them because they didn't go full screen. They left like a fourth of the screen unoccupied and simply black. If I switched to 240, you think they would take the full screen?
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA App

no. for example, live holdem pro looks the same crap on 320 and 240 too
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA App

That's not nice. Are there any workarounds for such apps? I thought DPI would be a solution.

DPI Settings

Bought a Galaxy Tab S 8.4 LTE 2 days ago. Beautiful device with great screen, but:
First thing you realize is the small font size in several apps, such as Facebook. Barely readable.
Tried to use larger font size in settings. That did some effect on some fonts, but no consistent result.
Same with the Big Font app - font sizes and overall appearance becomes inconsistent.
So the only way seemed to change DPI Settings. Which required rooting.
I did the CF autoroot thing. And fiddled with DPI settings using Texdroider app. Originally was 220 DPI. I tried 420 DPI.
Unfortunately after reboot, I was stuck at "systemui angehalten" error message, and touch screen did not respond to input.
Unfortunately I could not switch off the device (to reboot), pressing power button for ever gave no effect.
Since you cannot remove the battery on this device I had to let it run down completely over night. Then booting into Recovery (or Download Mode) was possible again.
Tried a full wipe in Recovery an rebooted. But endless systemui crash loop remained.
Will try to re-flash via Odin to get it back working.
So this thread is firstly a warning if anybody wants to change DPI settings on the Tab S.
Then some questions:
* Did anybody overcome the small fonts problem by changing DPI and which DPI setting is advisable?
* any way to force reboot in such case?

Just use xposed module appsetting to set the dpi for apps individually.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

edan1979 said:
Just use xposed module appsetting to set the dpi for apps individually.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AppSettings works well.. I changed the overall DPI to 240 because all the fonts were way too big for me.. I then reset certain apps back because some of the stock apps don't work right at different DPIs (camera, etc).

Reflashing revovered the systemui loop crash.
Tried App Settings, but no succes so far.
What do you guys set up, e.g. for facebook messenger?
Thanks!

Appsettings works great!
pibach said:
Reflashing revovered the systemui loop crash.
Tried App Settings, but no succes so far.
What do you guys set up, e.g. for facebook messenger?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have rooted my galaxy for using exposed framework just to be able to use app settings! It then works great. You can set the font size (or dpi I guess) individually for any app. I use different settings ie for Gmail, Facebook messenger, Chrome, Tapatalk... You have to try a bit to find the perfect setting but it's a must.
Without you have tiny fonts!

ok, I installed xposed framework via its installer and then added the app settings module. For those willing to follow this route: you find instructions here: http://www.xda-developers.com/andro...tom-stock-roms-and-hello-to-xposed-framework/
Then it is possible to set DPI (or change font size) for each app individually. Text size and rendering was fine for me with 400DPI for Facebook, Tapatalk, or Nova Launcher. Tried with some other apps as well. Seemingly all look better and are more touch friendly with DPI >= 400. For comparison: stock DPI is set to 320 while real DPI is some 500+.
However it is rather inconvenient to set up each and every app individually via app settings module.
Tried to change the global DPI settings with build prob editor, but that somehow did not succeed, 320 DPI remained unchanged.
Tried with DPI changer to no effect. DPI cannot be changed via these apps. Very strange, have to investigate further.
Then tried again with textdroider, just to check - and device hangs again
No chance of rebooting or anything...but...yeah, found a trick: insert a SIM-card into the slot and then get asked to restart! Works. You can boot into recovery or download mode. Will try with adb to restore the build.prop backup...
Meanwhile - has anyone been able to set global DPI to something like 400-500 successfully? How?

If you look carefully I n the build.prop there usiually got 2 same dpi line... change both or disable one of it.
Sent from my SM-T705 using Tapatalk

Appsettings module is the best option,going in to build.prop is for overall and sends you in to a boot loop .be sure to have a backup
Nexus 5 via Tapatalk

@edan1979, I found only one line in build.prop indicating DPI settings. build.prop editor and DPI changer strangely cannot change that.
I did another test, changing DPI by editing build.prop with Root Explorer. It does change - and goes into UI crash loop
@jball, any idea, why it crashes?

pibach said:
@edan1979, I found only one line in build.prop indicating DPI settings. build.prop editor and DPI changer strangely cannot change that.
I did another test, changing DPI by editing build.prop with Root Explorer. It does change - and goes into UI crash loop
@jball, any idea, why it crashes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I don't, I just know what happened the first time I did it.
Appsettings is the best option though
Nexus 5 via Tapatalk

pibach said:
@edan1979, I found only one line in build.prop indicating DPI settings. build.prop editor and DPI changer strangely cannot change that.
I did another test, changing DPI by editing build.prop with Root Explorer. It does change - and goes into UI crash loop
@jball, any idea, why it crashes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the UI will crash since it was build for the original dpi and the ui setting as well... just install another launcher first and clear the Touchwiz data. It wont crash any longer but if you use touchwiz it wont be good looking... and some other touchwiz related apps will crash as well... that one can be settle using app setting to original dpi.

pibach said:
@edan1979, I found only one line in build.prop indicating DPI settings. build.prop editor and DPI changer strangely cannot change that.
I did another test, changing DPI by editing build.prop with Root Explorer. It does change - and goes into UI crash loop
@jball, any idea, why it crashes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung is too lazy to support multidpi for their apps that's made for specific DPI values.

I did not use Touchwiz. It is SystemUI that crashes...

pibach said:
I did not use Touchwiz. It is SystemUI that crashes...
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Click to collapse
Unless you are running CM, everything is part of Touchwiz, including SystemUI.

kenkiller said:
Unless you are running CM, everything is part of Touchwiz, including SystemUI.
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Click to collapse
Is it?
CM?
The DPI problem and crashes do occur as well on non Samsung devices. Don't they?

pibach said:
Is it?
CM?
The DPI problem and crashes do occur as well on non Samsung devices. Don't they?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really. I change DPI systemwide on my Nexus devices, they don't crash so easily - they are pretty much unified in terms of software.
Samsung really doesn't like to make a one size fits all firmware for the dozens of devices they release, so you get "problems" like this - to be fair, they don't really anticipate the average user to go around fooling with the DPI values.

Probably Samsung has set 320 DPI on all their devices?

pibach said:
Probably Samsung has set 320 DPI on all their devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who knows...who cares? Their assets probably isn't made for all the existing DPIs.
Anyway, xposed app settings works fine for most apps, just gotta live with the systemUI being stuck in that.

If systemUI belongs to TouchWiz, couldn't it be replaced? How?

pibach said:
If systemUI belongs to TouchWiz, couldn't it be replaced? How?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure....Flash Cyanogenmod for it, if it exists and you don't mind losing all of Samsung's features.