On Mon, Feb 12, 2007 at 06:36:09PM +0000, Michael Grosberg wrote:
Also, note that the operating system can't really tell your resolution: the monitor doesn't tell the system what size it is. In windows XP, normal resolution is defined as 96 DPI, but again, this number is meaningless.
Just to clean this up, it can and does. It is part of the DDC connection that modern monitors have with the OS. If the OS is willing to listen, the monitor can tell it its make, model, horizontal and vertical refresh rates, physical size, color depth, aspect ratio, orientation (for screens that can pivot). 87PPI sounds right, and as I have 19" monitors with 1280x1024, Linux's DDC support is currently reporting an 87 PPI (xdpyinfo will let you know what it is)
Again, for some reason Windows/Mac OSX ignores that particular feature.
Jeff