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General Category => NC100, NC200, PCW, PDA600 - the rest of the Family! => Topic started by: JonB on 19:00, 26 January 17

Title: Lousy PCW screen font
Post by: JonB on 19:00, 26 January 17

As I am not a fan of the default PCW screen font, I thought I'd see if I could change it after finding a utility on John Elliot's great website www.seasip.info (http://www.seasip.info). Unfortunately I could not find any actual fonts that were compatible with it, but I did find a package called LetaFont, which handily came with a bunch of COM files that set the font for you. Experimenting with these, I found the SANSERIF font gave the best results on my low resolution PCW screen (which is getting blurry due to old age, a bit like me):

[attach=2]


In case you didn't notice, the bottom half of the screen is rendered in San Serif. ;) And speaking of getting old, my apologies for the typos. My typing has been getting worse lately, especially on that dreadful "thing" that tries to pass for a keyboard on the PCW 8256. Hmm.. what we really need here is a PCW - USB keyboard adapter, then we can use a cheap mechanical keyboard with it..

Anyway, if you fancy a go at this, the font COM files are attached below. You can install one on your boot disk, then add a PROFILE.SUB that executes it at each boot.


Cheers
JonB
Title: Re: Lousy PCW screen font
Post by: GeoffB17 on 21:00, 26 January 17
I've been using that font on my PCW, and on Joyce, for a while now.


A definite improvement.


Not that I've got any problems with my PCW screen, which seems to be still  OK.


In the package, a couple of the other fonts are still some use, but only for specific situations, i.e. some games.


Geoff
Title: Re: Lousy PCW screen font
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 21:55, 26 January 17
Sadly, to tweak the display in a PCW you would need to open the case and it can be somehow dangerous. The font solution seems nice, though  :)
Title: Re: Lousy PCW screen font
Post by: JonB on 07:38, 27 January 17
There is not much to tweak on the board. V-SIZE, brightness maximum, v-LIN, V-HOLD, H-HOLD and that's about it. No FOCUS. I'm no expert but maybe this means all I can do is adjust the yoke?
Title: Re: Lousy PCW screen font
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 10:48, 27 January 17
If the tube is fine, there are still components in the motherboard that can change tolerances over the years. I would replace caps and, if necessary, repeat the screen calibration afterwards as described in the service manual. If the tube is not OK, then it would be a complete different issue  :(
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