288214 - Screen resolution display problem in firefox

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core :: General, defect)

Description

[Kris Silver]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050321 Firefox/1.0.2
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050321 Firefox/1.0.2

On increasingly commom widescreen monitors at resolution sizes 1280x800 and
1440x900 pixels, Firefox does not size the main windows, web page size, text
proportionate to the pixel size correctly.

At these sizes all programs including IE display pages preportionate to
resolution size.  So moving up from 1024x768 to 1280x900, programs including IE
 full the screen and the text, images etc is all proportionate, and larger. In
firefox, most web pages including Mozilla.org display the page basically the
same as 1024x768 pixels.  The page is not filled left and right.  So there is a
border of white nothing in most pages.  Also, the postitioning of pages is not
correct.  It doesnt centre pages as in IE, which should be and are normally
centred at screen resolution 1024x768.  Pages are instead left aligned more
often then not.  So not only is text not proportionate to the screen size, and
larger text etc being used, an inch or two of the page is simply not being used.
 This obviously results in wasted page space, and more strenious on the eyes
compared to IE which changes the ration correctly.  It makes websites too look
very bad.  

The only way to get over this issue is to make the overall font size for the
browser larger, say 20, 22 comes similar to how ie and other browsers show pages
at these sizes anyway.  This obviously is far from suitable, most would not
realise this, and perhaps even return to IE.  This makes text larger, but still
makes pages display incorrectly.  So lines are missed, words dropped.  In
installers the text is far too large often, sometimes you cant fill in text
boxes properly, scroll around them, and pages need scrolling that shouldnt.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Change screen resolution larger than 1024x768
2. change to 1280x800 or 1440x900, available primarily on increasingly common
widescreen monitors
3. View 9/10 websites, notice page not filled, size etc not proportionate to the
change as in other browsers

Actual Results:  
Pages not sized proportionately to the size change.  Pages in same text,
overally size (not larger as should) centred pages are instead left aligned,
leaving a white border of nothing on the right. This is obviously a serious
problem.  It is more strenous on the eyes, wastes screen space that should be
used, makes web sites look terrible and does not align, size them as they should
be (and are in other browsers).

Expected Results:  
Size pages proportionate to screen size.  Larger text and overall sizes.  Page
fills the screen, not left, right, or centred leaving wasted space that is used
at 1024x768 in firefox, and as this size in other browsers.

Comment 1

[Tuukka Tolvanen (sp3000)]

*** Bug 288216 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 2

[Jaime Mitchell (use [e-mail] for email)]

Are the sites displayed correctly if you restart firefox after the screen
resolution change? If so then this is a dupe of bug 62395 .

Otherwise please provide some URL's of sites which you think are not displaying
correctly.

FWIW I have no problem with sites not correctly displayed @ 1920*1200 display
resolution.

Comment 3

[Jaime Mitchell (use [e-mail] for email)]

[e-mail] does your blocking request mean that you are able to
confirm this issue?

Comment 4

[Ron Birdsall]

(In reply to comment #3)
> [e-mail] does your blocking request mean that you are able to
> confirm this issue?

Yes... in a sense. This bug is not clearly explained, but what I believe it to
be saying is a behavior I have noticed on my system (FFx 1.04, Win98se): 1. Look
at any web page at, e.g., 1024 x 768 resolution. 2. Change to a higher display
resolution, say 1600 x 1200, and reboot if required. 3. Open Ffx. 4. Open
Tools/General/Fonts&Colors/DisplayResolution and set the new screen resolution.
5. Reopen the previous web page. 6. Having made the above display resolution
adjustment in firefox, one would expect to see appropriately scaled content that
would appear identical to the screen display seen in (1.). But what is actually
seen is a display of smaller fonts and images, as though no compensation for the
higher display resolution had been accomplished. What previously appeared to be
a 10pt. font now looks like a 7pt. font, and so forth. A better title for this
bug would be "Firefox does not properly scale display for higher screen
resolutions."

Comment 5

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

that's a separate bug.  I have a 1280x800 display on my laptop and I don't see
this aside from sites that specify this behaviour, and we're rendering according
to spec, so this seems to be invalid, unless there's a specific site we can
compare side by side...

Comment 6

[Kris Silver]

As I said, an example is Mozilla.org, it does the same there.  Luckily on that
site it centere's it, but you get big white borders either side.  Like rbird
said, it is not compensated or something.  Open Mozilla.org up in IE, and its
covering the whole screen, larger text, appropriate the screen size and resolution.

The only fix I find was to change the default text sizes etc, in Firefox font
options.  I can do further specific tests next week if you wish based on this
explanation.

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Attachment: compares FF & IE

Q: does it get worse as resolution size increases?

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

no testcases, no response. If you have a URL that doesn't match comment 5 please update the bug.
=> incomplete