[techtalk] Changing the Console Video Mode

[Rik Hemsley]

#if Jenn V.
> > Glasses aren't really fun to wear when you use a monitor. If you're
> > short sighted, you should take off your glasses. If you're long
> > sighted, you could be sitting a little too close to the screen.
> 
> ... and if you're astigmatic, keratonic AND longsighted (like me)
> what do you do?

Braille terminal ? ;)

Sorry, I do have a reasonable answer.

Sit about 2-3m from your monitor (nose to screen) and run with *either*
very large fonts/icons/window decorations, *or* a very low resolution.

I'd recommend getting your resolution and refresh up high, for clarity-
and headache/eyestrain- friendliness and then increasing the size of
on-screen objects as large as is practical.

I am shortsighted and therefore you'd expect me to be able to sit close
to the screen with tiny fonts. Sure, I _can_, but I don't. I have very
large fonts (try size 16 or even 18 in KDE, at 1280x1024 or higher) and
sit away.

This way of working ensures I don't get eyestrain or headaches from staring
at the screen anymore and I feel altogether more comfortable when working
for long periods (which I do frequently).

Sure, I lose the advantage of seeing large amounts of information on the
screen at once, but you learn to be more efficient. For example, I use
Vim for editing and I usually split my window vertically, plus set 
scrolloff=2 so I always get 2 lines of context when I scroll (the cursor
doesn't hit the top or bottom of the window).

Another thing you can do to help with sight problems is to use a
text-based web browser. Getting rid of the moving graphics and having
a consistent font is underrated.

Cheers,
Rik

-- 
2. Implicate yourself in every interpretation.

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