Font Fusion

Font Fusion

overview • DEMO • font compression • display modes • plug-in, Symbian OS • digital tv • white papers • contact • home

Viewing Text on Low-Resolution Devices, Like TVs
Books and magazines are fairly easy to read, because they are printed at high resolutions, typically 2400 dpi (dots per inch) and up, and use a great variety of interesting and readable fonts.

However, an LCD screen (found on laptops, personal digital assistants or PDAs) is a low-resolution device. Here, you're typically viewing text at 9-12 point on (1) a 72 dpi or 96 dpi screen, (2) a 72 dpi Palm device, (3) a 106 dpi Pocket PC, etc.

TVs are a little better than PDAs, but not much. No matter what standard your TV has to operate in (NTSC or PAL), no matter whether you are viewing a DVD or an HDTV, your customers will be viewing text on a device that has only 2% to 9% of the resolution of the printed page !

Unclear, jagged characters force customers to focus on a product's limitations, not its ease of use, value, or reliability. But there are other problems that developers face with TV displays.

Print Typically 20,400 pixels across
PDAs Typically 240 or 320 pixels across - or only 1.2% to 1.6% of print resolution
TVs & DVDs NTSC: Typically 448 pixels across PAL: Typically 538 pixels across DVD: Typically 720 pixels across HDTV: Typically 640 - 1920 pixels
Bottom Line: Low Resolution	Most of today's TVs & DVDs have only 2% - 9% of the resolution of the printed page

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