Mixcraft hard to see on high-res monitors

[oldman503]

(Applies to Mixcraft 6 and 7)
Is there a way to enlarge the items (text, tracks, etc) within Mixcraft? They are very small and difficult to see. I have a Dell 3014 high-resolution monitor (2560x1600). My OS is Windows 7.
I have tried all known Windows tricks:
- Change "DPI" in control panel. Try different text scaling in Control Panel
- Right click "Properties" on the Mixcraft 7 executable and try:
- Run in "compatibility mode" for Windows XP, etc.
- Run in 640 x480 screen resolution (This is the only choice, and does NOT work)
- Disable display scaling on high DPI settings.
I have attached a screenshot. Note that the Mixcraft title banner, and "File, Edit, Mix", etc are all fine, but the program contents are quite small (track names, icons, etc)

Thanks

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion!

Greg

[Acoustica Dan]

Your image is somewhat unusual. If you look at the picture I've attached, typically the Help menu lines up with the width of the line that separates the track header from the rest of the track. In your image, the track header is much smaller. Something you've done is causing your menu to be much larger than the Mixcraft application itself! That's very odd -- this isn't how Mixcraft normally appears. It sounds like you've been changing options in Windows.. something must be causing the application to draw small, or the menu to draw larger.

What OS are you using?

Dan

[oldman503]

Dan,

Thanks for your prompt reply.
The only thing I have done regarding text size is to set the text to 140% in the control panel.
As noted in the original post, my OS is Windows 7, with a Dell 3014 monitor.

I do notice that you have installed the 64-bit Mixcraft 7, whereas I installed the 32-bit. I wonder if that might be the problem.

Thanks

[outteh]

As Dan points out, I have adjusted my windows settings to display larger fonts in Title Headers and Menu Bars. So my picture of Mixcraft looks more like settings look like oldman503, however, my other fonts are not as small so I suspect another windows adjustment had been made somewhere, wither in DPI settings or another windows personalize adjustment.

MixcraftFonts.jpg (81.11 KiB) Viewed 7858 times

[outteh]

I just changed my settings to 150% and got the same layout effect as oldman503. Suggest going back to the standard 100% setting and see how Mixcraft looks on your machine.

[fredfish]

From reading Oldmans post I don't think it is the "Layout" that is causing issues, it is the size of the font that is used in the Mixcraft components. Doing what the OP has done has increased the menu texts to a readable size whilst leaving the Mixcraft UI text smaller than is comfortable.

My screen isn't quite as high as Oldmans but I can see what he is getting at. What is needed is a way to increase the size of the Mixcraft UI text.

Cheers

John

[outteh]

When I adjusted my settings to the larger font as windows let's you do, the size of the fonts in the "inside" menus got smaller in comparison to the original.

[oldman503]

Additional observations about the tiny fonts/items inside Mixcraft:
- Regarding the suggestion to revert to the default text size (100%) in windows: If I do that, ALL the text/items - for all programs - are small. Note the tiny "default" size in the screenshot of the Control Panel font adjustment screenshot. Everything looks like that!
- Regarding the possibility that the issue is "DPI" settings or some other Windows adjustment: I tried both changing the "DPI" settings - that's how I got the 140%. I have also tried not changing the DPI setting and just taking one of the defaults (100%, 125%, 150%). I selected 150% for example, and the issue is the same. I suspect that the defaults just do the same thing as manually setting DPI.
- I do note that other programs have the same issue, which is: changing the Windows font size only affects the "Title bar" and the "File/Edit/etc" menu bar. The interior text/items are too small. For example, Paint Shop Pro is the same way. However some programs have evidently done something to fix it internally in the program For example, Fidelity "Active Trader Pro" displays all items bigger or smaller when I change the Windows font size.
- I can fix the issues with Mixcraft and other apps by changing the monitor resolution to a smaller number. But then I lose the advantage of the high res monitor! Also, LCD/LED monitors "should" be run at their "native resolution" for optimal quality.

This may just be an issue of Windows 7 and earlier versions. Windows has never really addressed different screen resolutions in an adequate way. I "think" that Windows 8.1 does fix this, based on some screenshots I have seen.
But Windows 8.1 has other issues. There are lots of folks like me who stay with Windows 7.
Maybe I will install Windows 10 when it comes out next year. (They're skipping the number "9").

Unless, of course, you guys at Acoustica can find a fix.

By the way, I find Mixcraft to be a really great product!!

Thanks again.

[Canopy]

Hope nobody mights me bumping this rather than making a new post.

1. As a Windows developer myself, I've done some DPI work recently. 100% and 150% work similarly under the hood in windows, as 150% in the 100% version scaled. However 125% is treated very differently by GDI. (No idea what API Mixcraft uses for its UI)

2. I've been trying to use Mixcraft 7 on a Windows tablet. Due the the lack of scaling it is very hard to click on things unless a bluetooth mouse is used.


I "just" want to plug my USB Mic into my tablet to record myself playing guitar but it is not straightforward. Being able to use Mixcraft on a Windows tablet where I take it would be great.

[clavguy]

Hey.... with a name like Oldman503, he should join the old farts club!!!

Cheers
PIerre

[Acoustica Greg]

Hope nobody mights me bumping this rather than making a new post.

1. As a Windows developer myself, I've done some DPI work recently. 100% and 150% work similarly under the hood in windows, as 150% in the 100% version scaled. However 125% is treated very differently by GDI. (No idea what API Mixcraft uses for its UI)

2. I've been trying to use Mixcraft 7 on a Windows tablet. Due the the lack of scaling it is very hard to click on things unless a bluetooth mouse is used.


I "just" want to plug my USB Mic into my tablet to record myself playing guitar but it is not straightforward. Being able to use Mixcraft on a Windows tablet where I take it would be great.

Hi,

A mouse is definitely the way to go when using a DAW on a tablet. We'd have to make the controls giant in order for them to work with touch screens.

Greg

[Canopy]

Yeah I understand. I just want to throw out there that an 'easy to use' DAW like MixCraft suits the portable ideal, and that scaling the entire UI a notch would make it more usable, or (I know its a huge thing) a UI update that works better with tablets - market share is still increasing in that area, even including Windows.

btw I've also used the iPad app to control my main desktop PC, and it works great. But wanting a tablet based mobile set up I can take to acoustic jam sessions and the like which doesn't currently work well with mixcraft.

Now where's that nice MS bluetooth mouse someone gave me..

[Mark Bliss]

Ya'll eyes are better (younger) than mine. I have trouble "losing the cursor" on a 17" laptop and really appreciate my big screen desktop monitor. Soon to be paired with another I hope.

[Acoustica Greg]

Yeah I understand. I just want to throw out there that an 'easy to use' DAW like MixCraft suits the portable ideal, and that scaling the entire UI a notch would make it more usable, or (I know its a huge thing) a UI update that works better with tablets - market share is still increasing in that area, even including Windows.

btw I've also used the iPad app to control my main desktop PC, and it works great. But wanting a tablet based mobile set up I can take to acoustic jam sessions and the like which doesn't currently work well with mixcraft.

Now where's that nice MS bluetooth mouse someone gave me..

You can zoom the piano roll if needed: