The feature will be implemented in GNOME Shell and Mutter

Mar 7, 2019 13:09 GMT  ·  By

The GNOME Project revealed the fact that the forthcoming GNOME 3.32 desktop environment will feature fractional scaling for HiDPI/4K displays, implemented in the GNOME Shell and Mutter components.

Support for HiDPI monitors was available in GNOME for a while now, but it's limited to scaling windows by integral factors like 2, and most modern displays are between these DPI ranges. Fractional scaling will allow windows scaling by fractional values, such as 3/2 or 2/1.3333 to make them look better on HiDPI/4K displays.

GNOME/Ubuntu developer Marco Trevisan reports on the fractional scaling feature for the GNOME 3.32 desktop environment, which was in the works for some years now, saying the relevant proposals have been prepared for implementation in the GNOME Shell and Mutter components for the upcoming GNOME 3.32 release next week.

"We started this work some years ago (ouch!) and lead to an Hackfest in Taipei, but in between other work to do and priorities which caused this to be delayed a bit," said Marco Trevisan. "So starting from now the shell will paint all its elements properly and in good visual quality at any fractional scaled value."

Here's how to enable fractional scaling in GNOME 3.32

When the GNOME 3.32 desktop environment will be available later this month or in early April, users would want to enable fractional scaling for their HiDPI monitors since the feature isn't enabled by default as it's still considered experimental. One thing to keep in mind though is that it only works on a Wayland session, not X11.

Enabling fractional scaling in GNOME 3.32 is as simple as running the command listed below in a terminal emulator. Once it's been activated, you can go to GNOME Control Center's Display panel to choose a scaling factor from a more broader set of scaling values. More details are available in Marco Trevisan's latest blog post.

gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['scale-monitor-framebuffer']"
Monitors with different scaling values, and a window drawn in between the two
Monitors with different scaling values, and a window drawn in between the two

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Fractional scaling in GNOME Shell
Monitors with different scaling values, and a window drawn in between the two
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