[R] Larger X11 fonts under R-2.1.0

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Thu, 19 May 2005, Brahm, David wrote:

> I view plots on my screen with X11(width=.455*11, height=.455*8.5),
> which creates a small window with the American standard aspect ratio.
> Under R-2.0.1 and earlier, the default fonts were a reasonable size,
> but under R-2.1.0 they are too big and fat.  I now have to either set
> pointsize=10 in X11(), or par(cex=.7) afterwards.

So you should.  We have corrected a bug: you now get the size you ask for
and 12pt on such a small window will be too large.

DId you think to actually measure the sizes?  Might be interesting 
(although you may need to measure the window too).

> The NEWS file has this to say about X11 fonts:
>  The changes to font handling in the X11 module are based on the
>  Japanization patches of Eiji Nakama.

The change is more likely to be

     o	X11() was only scaling its fonts to pointsize if the dpi
 	was within 0.5 of 100dpi.

in the BUGS list.

I happen to have 99.4 and 120 dpi screens, and I assure you the previous 
default of 75dpi fonts was way too small for the default 7" window.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595