Scaling issues with 4k monitor

[voom]

I have scaling on the 4k screen set to 150% as recommended by windows. Mostly, the Affinity apps scale well, but there are some issues.

A - If the Affinity apps have no compatibility settings for the DPI/scaling:

1. The open/save/save as etc. windows don't scale to 150% when opened by an Affinity app

2. The context menu scales if opened over a studio area (like over a layer or the pages-area in publisher) but is scaled to tiny 100% if opened over the canvas area.

B - If the Affinity apps have compatibility settings for DPI/scaling (set to "System"):

1. The sub-windows and context menues scale fine anywhere

2. The eyedropper has an offset between the area shown when hovering over it and the color it samples

There are workarounds, but either way it seems rather inconsistent

[Mark Ingram]

Hi, thanks for the report. I have 3 4K monitors here, they're set to 150%, 200%, and 250%. I don't see any scaling issues, but have heard reports of this before, so we're going to need a bit more info.

Are you on Windows 10? Can you provide a couple of screenshots of the issues you're seeing?

[voom]

I am on Win10

A 2. can be seen in this video:

 

B 2. looks like this, as you can see, the region the eyedropper sees is the Artboard-Tool Button:

 

And here A 1. with the tiny fonts in the "open" window:

 

[Mark Ingram]

Hi @voom, it looks like you have some custom extensions installed (the blue glow, the buttons on all window title bars etc). 

The File | Open dialog is provided by Windows, but it looks like the rest of the UI is scaling properly. 

Have you changed any DPI settings specifically for this application?

[voom]

The blue glow comes from "Stardock Curtains". The small buttons are from Display Fusion. I turned both off with no effect.

The scaling of the file open dialog derives from the program calling it. Thus the difference between A 1. and B 1. as described in the OP. So I could fix theses dialogs by setting compatibility DPI settings to "System" forcing them to open at 150% which is the system setting for the screen (B 1.). But then the eyedropper issue appears (B 2.).

[Mark Ingram]

2 hours ago, voom said:

The blue glow comes from "Stardock Curtains". The small buttons are from Display Fusion. I turned both off with no effect.

The scaling of the file open dialog derives from the program calling it. Thus the difference between A 1. and B 1. as described in the OP. So I could fix theses dialogs by setting compatibility DPI settings to "System" forcing them to open at 150% which is the system setting for the screen (B 1.). But then the eyedropper issue appears (B 2.).

You shouldn't need to change any DPI settings on the app, we are per-monitor DPI aware (so we support DPI changes even when moving the application window between monitors). By changing the DPI compatibility level, you're effectively overriding what we have configured the application to do.

Have you ever configured a custom scaling level in Windows Settings?

[voom]

The scaling level in Windows settings for the 4k screen is always at 150% (as recommended). The HD screens at 100%. I only tried to override the Affinity app-specific settings because of the issue of the open/save etc. dialogs. btw if the dialog has been opened by Affinity app on one of the HDs, and dragged to the 4k, it goes smaller resp. stays at 100% scaling.

If the same dialogs are opened e.g. by a MS Office 2019 app or even Sumatra PDF (being a classic windows desktop app) they are scaled to 150% on the 4k w/out touching custom per app DPI settings.

[Mark Ingram]

1 minute ago, voom said:

If the same dialogs are opened e.g. by a MS Office 2019 app or even Sumatra PDF (being a classic windows desktop app) they are scaled to 150% on the 4k.

That's how my computer is currently behaving (as expected). But, I have seen this before on a colleague's computer, so I'll see whether we can remember what steps we took to resolve this for them...

[voom]

That would be great There is a string of effects that involve other apps that would make a solution an that point very helpful. As a workaround I force all open/save/etc. dialogs with Display Fusion to open on the main HD screen. That only works if "open dependent windows centered over main window" is off. Now all kinds of dialogs appear on the main screen and many times I wonder why nothing happens, and then have to find the dialog somewhere else to click "ok"...