unity picks poor hidpi scale factor defaults

Would you like to provide some idea about when it's reasonable to use integer only scaling, when it's not?

After thinking through the various cases, I think the cases where integer scaling can't provide an ideal widget size are also the cases where user's preferences are going to be split. There is also at least one usable integer scale for any given dpi.

I did a fair bit of testing to simulate the apparent scale of widgets. Everything from 140 dpi up to 210 dpi is usable at 1x. Everything between 210 dpi and 280 dpi is usable at 2x (if sometimes a bit big).

Exactly 210 dpi is usable either way, and I could see different users choosing 1x, 2x, or 1.5x depending on their preference between a) lots of screen real estate, b) big, readable text, or c) average size at the expense of broken widget rendering.

I think we can provide a usable default experience actually with just integer scaling. 140 dpi is good as the optimal target, but instead of rounding to eighths, just round to a whole integer (Scale factor or 8 or 16). The usability problems for 1x scaling begin just above 210 dpi, so above that 2x is appropriate.

That way we deliver correct widget rendering out of the box. The fractional scaling will still be there in the settings for people who prefer to optimize size and screen real estate at the cost of ugly GTK rendering.

Can you attach a screenshot of the "broken widget rendering"? Sounds like it's a separate issue and we should fix it properly.

In the meantime, I think we can add an extra knob for something like "integer-scaling", to make scale-factor always round to 8 or 16. But I doubt Unity upstream would like it though.

But we should fix broken things as well.

The "broken widget rendering" is a manifestation of how GTK3 handles HiDPI. GTK3 doesn't natively scale at 1/8 increments, so Unity's scaling is working around that by messing with the size of text and widgets.

To give you an idea, I'm attaching a screenshot of the same window as rendered at 1x (as on a 140dpi screen) and 1.5x (as on a 210dpi screen). You can see how the text nearly overflows the switches and drop downs. Plus the window doesn't resize correctly (same width in pixels but physically smaller).

To actually get non-integer scaling to look right would be quite a big effort. We'd need to either patch the major toolkits to support non-integer scaling or modify Ubuntu's window manager/compositor to render individual windows at the next integer scale up (2x) and then rescale the window down to the correct size (1.5x), plus add proper input redirection support in X.

That's why I'm suggesting we minimize the number of people we give non-integer scaling.

Thanks for your useful feedback!

So we can either
1. Add an extra knob to choose integer scaling, default to true, or
2. Just use integer scaling altogether.

I subscribed upstream maintainer to see which one is preferable.

This patch should scale to the nearest integer scaling factor.

The attachment "hidpi-integer-scaling.patch" seems to be a patch. If it isn't, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are a member of the ~ubuntu-reviewers, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issues please contact him.]

David, can you try [1]?

I just tried it, the patch works great on my 4k monitor.

[1] https://code.launchpad.net/~azzar1/unity/round-gtk-scaling-to-closest-integer/+merge/313459

I just tried the merge proposal, and it works much less great for me. The merge proposal changes don't improve the default scaling, which is the focus of this bug, but it does make it very difficult for users to choose an in-between scale if they want or need it for accessibility reasons.

Kai-Heng Feng, What's the physical size of your 4K monitor, and what scaling size does this pick for you?

No it didn't change how it pick the default scaling, it only scales widgets to make what you described in comment #4 works better.

As you mentioned, GTK+3 does not support 1/8 increments, so if we just want everything in widgets to scale proportionally to the 1x scale, we should use integer scaling only.

At this point I think we need both patches. My patch is useful because I don't see any reason to have unity scaling to 1.99 and gtk scaling to 1.

Yes, I had a momentary brain glitch. 1.5x is a better place to put the sudden jump in size than 2x, so yes, your patch is a good improvement, and with both patches I think we'll have a good solution.

This bug was fixed in the package unity - 7.5.0+17.04.20170109-0ubuntu1

---------------
unity (7.5.0+17.04.20170109-0ubuntu1) zesty; urgency=medium

  [ Andrea Azzarone ]
  * Round gtk scaling factor to closest integer. (LP: #1649736)
  * Keep the screen locked if rebooting with autologin. (LP: #1600389)

  [ Eleni Maria Stea ]
  * shouldn't create blur rectangles when there's no blur, skips the
    blur rects processing in low gfx.

 -- Marco Trevisan (Treviño) <mail@3v1n0.net> Mon, 09 Jan 2017 15:10:02 +0000

So this patch totally broke my desktop. 1x is way too small 2x is absurdly huge. 1.5x would be perfect (and was in xenial...)

Any idea how I can fix this for my setup (Thinkpad T460s with a 4k screen)?

Hello David, or anyone else affected,

Accepted unity into xenial-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/7.4.5+16.04.20171116 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed.Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested and change the tag from verification-needed-xenial to verification-done-xenial. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-xenial. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Hello David, or anyone else affected,

Accepted unity into xenial-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/7.4.5+16.04.20171201.3 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed.Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested and change the tag from verification-needed-xenial to verification-done-xenial. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-xenial. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

7.4.5+16.04.20171201.3 fixes scaling issues here

Thank you for taking the time to verify this stable release fix. We have noticed that you have used the verification-done tag for marking the bug as verified and would like to point out that due to a recent change in SRU bug verification policy fixes now have to be marked with per-release tags (i.e. verification-done-$RELEASE). Please remove the verification-done tag and add one for the release you have tested the package in. Thank you!

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Verification

This bug was fixed in the package unity - 7.4.5+16.04.20171201.3

---------------
unity (7.4.5+16.04.20171201.3) xenial; urgency=medium

  [ Marco Trevisan (Treviño) ]
  * InputMonitor: add an unity class that monitors XInput2 events and
    converts them to XEvent
  * EdgeBarrierController: use InputMonitor to get the barrier events
    instead of relying on its implementation
  * DecorationsMenuLayout: use input monitor for menu scrubbing (LP:
    #1614597)
  * PanelView: use InputMonitor to track menu events
  * LockScreenPanel: use InputMonitor events instead of mouse polling
    for menu scrubbing
  * MenuManager: add support for mouse trackers with triangle algorithm
    support (LP: #1618405)
  * PanelView: scale gradient refinement properly
  * PanelService: don't allow to deactivate menus if they've been opened
    too shortly
  * LockScreenController: ignore icon_paths_changed signal in
    menumanager for Lockscreen
  * LockScreenController: use InputMonitor to get all the events and
    hide the Blank Window (LP: #1321075)
  * LockScreenController: use input monitor to get the events to switch
    monitor (LP: #1316862)
  * LauncherOptions: use track_obj to manage option changes (LP:
    #1622995)
  * UnityScreen: toggle gestures recognition on lock (LP: #1645507)
  * GnomeSessionManager: add gcancellable to instance and use it for
    calls with temporary proxies
  * BackgroundSettings: use gnome-bg to generate textures with proper
    scaling (LP: #1666359)
  * UnityWindow: safely check validity of UnityWindow from scaled one
    (LP: #1659847)
  * Panel: ensure the menu-manager tracker is updated to match monitor
    (LP: #1671432)
  * compiz-profile-setter: tool to update the current profile and use in
    systemd and Unity settings (LP: #1668950)
  * BGHash, UnityScreen: get desktop averageColor from compiz
  * Launcher: disable or reduce most icon effects on lowgfx (LP:
    #1700859)
  * PanelController: ensure we disconnect from signals on destruction
    (LP: #1504870)
  * tools: add migration script to set the default values for unity-
    lowgfx profile

  [ Andrea Azzarone ]
  * Properly handle the file manager copy dialog in
    FileManagerLauncherIcon and in StorageLauncherIcon. (LP: #1575452,
    LP: #1609845)
  * Correctly position the force quit dialog when scaling is different
    than 1.0 (LP: #1637991)
  * GnomeSession: Retrieve the session id using dbus if $XDG_SESSION_ID
    is not set
  * Round gtk scaling factor to closest integer. (LP: #1649736)
  * Keep the screen locked if rebooting with autologin. (LP: #1600389)
  * Use g_mkdir_with_parents instead of mkdir.
  * Lockscreen: always draw the background-color in the lockscreen (LP:
    #1702701)
  * Refactor the way UserAuthenticator is created and passed around.
    Handle failures to create new threads and fallback to a "Switch to
    greeter..." button in case of failure. (LP: #1311316)
  * Wait until the color buffer is cleared before suspending. (LP:
    #1532508)

  [ Kai-Heng Feng ]
  * UnitySettings: If scale-factor is not set, find and set right scale
    for HiDPI displays.

  [ Eleni Maria Stea ]
  * shouldn't create blur rectangles when there's ...

The verification of the Stable Release Update for unity has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.