Created attachment 164770 [details] Plasma 6 UI SUMMARY The icons and quite possibly the UI of plasma 6 is noticeably blurrier. On plasma 5 it was sharp. It might be related to fractional scaling. Please see the attached screenshots for comparision. Check the icons in Icons on systray (most noticeable), kwrite, settings, application menu STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Set fractional scaling to 125% (at 1080p resolution ?) OBSERVED RESULT Blurry UI or Icons EXPECTED RESULT Sharp UI and Icons SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Linux/KDE Plasma: Fedora Rawhide (available in About System) KDE Plasma Version: Plasma 6 Beta 2
Created attachment 164771 [details] Plasma 5 UI
*** Bug 479529 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Created attachment 164772 [details] Plasma 6 UI without scaling Without scaling the icons and text are noticeably sharper. While some blur is expected at higher scaling, the blur is far more than plasma 5.
When viewing the image, kindly adjust the zoom levels as per your resolution to make the image not blurry.
I think the reason for change between 5 and 6 is that in 5 Plasma's UI (unlike for normal apps) didn't use normal UI scaling and only scaled fonts. While 6 scales everything including icons. With 125% scale the icons become blurry because while icons are vectors they are created with the virtual pixel grid in mind and since 125% scaling is so close to 100% it messes up with their rasterization resulting in blurry half-pixels. I don't know whether it's possible to improve this (except buying 4K monitor which Apple tells to their customers). Though visually Windows 11 seems to handle 125% scaling better than Plasma (at least in UWP/WinUI apps). So maybe some tricks are possible.
(In reply to equeim from comment #5) > I think the reason for change between 5 and 6 is that in 5 Plasma's UI > (unlike for normal apps) didn't use normal UI scaling and only scaled fonts. > While 6 scales everything including icons. With 125% scale the icons become > blurry because while icons are vectors they are created with the virtual > pixel grid in mind and since 125% scaling is so close to 100% it messes up > with their rasterization resulting in blurry half-pixels. I don't know > whether it's possible to improve this (except buying 4K monitor which Apple > tells to their customers). Though visually Windows 11 seems to handle 125% > scaling better than Plasma (at least in UWP/WinUI apps). So maybe some > tricks are possible. In fact, macOS simply doesn't support fractional scaling below 200%. Unfortunately that's not a solution for PCs where 1440p monitors for which 125/150% scaling is desired are common.
(In reply to equeim from comment #5) > I think the reason for change between 5 and 6 is that in 5 Plasma's UI > (unlike for normal apps) didn't use normal UI scaling and only scaled fonts. > While 6 scales everything including icons. With 125% scale the icons become > blurry because while icons are vectors they are created with the virtual > pixel grid in mind and since 125% scaling is so close to 100% it messes up > with their rasterization resulting in blurry half-pixels. I don't know > whether it's possible to improve this (except buying 4K monitor which Apple > tells to their customers). Though visually Windows 11 seems to handle 125% > scaling better than Plasma (at least in UWP/WinUI apps). So maybe some > tricks are possible. Will it be possible to add an option that does not scale everything. Only scale font ?
(In reply to siddharth.manthan from comment #7) > (In reply to equeim from comment #5) > > I think the reason for change between 5 and 6 is that in 5 Plasma's UI > > (unlike for normal apps) didn't use normal UI scaling and only scaled fonts. > > While 6 scales everything including icons. With 125% scale the icons become > > blurry because while icons are vectors they are created with the virtual > > pixel grid in mind and since 125% scaling is so close to 100% it messes up > > with their rasterization resulting in blurry half-pixels. I don't know > > whether it's possible to improve this (except buying 4K monitor which Apple > > tells to their customers). Though visually Windows 11 seems to handle 125% > > scaling better than Plasma (at least in UWP/WinUI apps). So maybe some > > tricks are possible. > > Will it be possible to add an option that does not scale everything. Only > scale font ? You can set scaling to 100% and just increase font size directly instead (in font settings). However this won't work as expected if you have multiple monitors with different pixel densities since font size is global.
(In reply to equeim from comment #8) > (In reply to siddharth.manthan from comment #7) > > (In reply to equeim from comment #5) > > > I think the reason for change between 5 and 6 is that in 5 Plasma's UI > > > (unlike for normal apps) didn't use normal UI scaling and only scaled fonts. > > > While 6 scales everything including icons. With 125% scale the icons become > > > blurry because while icons are vectors they are created with the virtual > > > pixel grid in mind and since 125% scaling is so close to 100% it messes up > > > with their rasterization resulting in blurry half-pixels. I don't know > > > whether it's possible to improve this (except buying 4K monitor which Apple > > > tells to their customers). Though visually Windows 11 seems to handle 125% > > > scaling better than Plasma (at least in UWP/WinUI apps). So maybe some > > > tricks are possible. > > > > Will it be possible to add an option that does not scale everything. Only > > scale font ? > > You can set scaling to 100% and just increase font size directly instead (in > font settings). However this won't work as expected if you have multiple > monitors with different pixel densities since font size is global. I do have multiple monitors but there are other issues with this approach. I tried this approach. In android studio the font size increased but the size of other elements did not which make the overall UI look out of proportion. In chromium it is necessary to use 1.25 scaling to make pages readable. Combine that with increased font size, the Address bar and tab title font look too big. Most electron apps don't follow the font settings and don't provide a way to change it either. These apps look too small without global scaling.
Global fractional scaling is necessary on small high resolution screens (like in laptops). Without it everything is too small.
You'll also notice that the icons' iconography itself is different, which may account for a certain amount of this. In Plasma 5 were you using Wayland? Or only in Plasma 6?
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #11) > You'll also notice that the icons' iconography itself is different, which > may account for a certain amount of this. > > In Plasma 5 were you using Wayland? Or only in Plasma 6? Yes, the icons are different. I have attached unscaled plasma 6 screenshot tk make comparision easier. Wayland on both. Fedora enables it by default.
Thanks.
https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kirigami/-/commit/f36f6e6ffe5f622af112f07631466687d49ec349 Aimed to fix that
*** Bug 477051 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***