DPI Scaling Size - Change for Displays in Windows 8.1

**Brink** · 15 Jul 2013

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How to Change DPI Scaling Size for Displays in Windows 8.1

Information

In Windows 8.1, you can now set DPI (Dots per Inch) scaling to make text and other items, such as icons, fonts, and windows, to display larger or smaller for all displays or per-display.

Windows 8.1 DPI scaling improvements are primarily focused on:

Optimizing the usability and readability of high-DPI displays
Providing a uniform experience multi-display systems
Empowering developers to optimize app-specific scaling based on display DPI

If you are running a screen resolution of 1366x768 on a tablet, chances are that UI will look good at 100% DPI settings. But what about when you connect that tablet to an external high resolution display? In Windows 8 you can choose either 100% to optimize the UI on the tablet display or up to 150% to optimize the UI on the external display. You have to compromise.

Windows 8.1 takes care of this issue by supporting per-display DPI scaling to address. By default, Windows 8.1 will choose the optimum DPI scaling value for each display based on the value chosen for overall scaling in the control panel.

For more information, see:

This tutorial will show you how to change the DPI scaling to make text and other items, such as icons, fonts, and windows, to display larger or smaller for all displays or per-display for only your account in Windows 8.1.

Note

Setting the DPI size to a smaller number or percentage will decrease all items size on the display(s), while setting the DPI size to a larger number or percentage will increase all items size on the display(s).

In Windows 8.1, the DPI setting only affects screens on the desktop.

To change the DPI of the Modern UI (Metro) screens, see: How to Turn "Make everything on your screen bigger" On or Off in Windows 8

OPTION ONE DPI Scaling Size - Change for Displays in Windows 8.1

Change DPI Scaling of All Displays or Per-Display in "Display" CP

1. Do step 2 or 3 below for how you would like to open the Display window.

2. Open the Control Panel (icons view), click/tap on the Display icon, and go to step 4 below.

3. Right click or press and hold on an empty area of your desktop, and click/tap on Personalize. Click/tap on the Display link on the bottom left side of Personalization, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)

4. Do step 5, 6, or 7 below for what you would like to do.

5. To Change DPI Scaling Size Per-Display
NOTE: This will have Windows 8.1 automatically choose the optimum DPI scaling value for each display based on the value (ex: Smaller -> Larger) chosen for overall scaling.

A) Uncheck the Let me choose one scaling level for all my displays box. (see screenshot below)

B) Move the slider to a supported smaller (96 DPI or 100%), medium (120 DPI or 125%), or larger (144 DPI or 150%) for the size you want, click/tap on Apply, and go to step 8 below.

Vertical lines in Screen Resolution	Supported DPI scale factors
<900	100%
>= 900 and <1080	100%, 125%
>=1080 and <1440	100%, 125%, 150%
>=1440	100%, 125%, 150%, 200%

6. To Select a DPI Scaling Size for All Displays

A) Check the Let me choose one scaling level for all my displays box. (see screenshot below)

B) Select (dot) a listed DPI size you want, click/tap on Apply, and go to step 8 below.

7. To Set a Custom DPI Scaling Size for All Displays

A) Check the Let me choose one scaling level for all my displays box, and click/tap on the Custom sizing options link. (see screenshot below)

B) Click/tap on the drop down menu to select a DPI scaling size percentage you want, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

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C) Click/tap on Apply, and go to step 8 below. (see screenshot below)

8. If prompted, click/tap on Sign out now to apply. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Be sure to save anything you are working on first.

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9. If you didn't need to sign out (ex: using step 5), then you can close the Display window if you like.

OPTION TWO DPI Scaling Size - Change for Displays in Windows 8.1

To Change DPI Scaling of All Displays in Registry Editor

1. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and press Enter.

2. If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.

3. In regedit, navigate to the location below: (see screenshot below)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

4. In the right pane of Desktop, double click/tap on Win8DpiScaling to modify it. (see screenshot above)

5. Type 1, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

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6. In the right pane of Desktop, double click/tap on LogPixels to modify it. (see screenshot below step 3)
NOTE: If you do not have the LogPixels DWORD value, then right click on an empty space in the right pane of Desktop, click on New and DWORD (32-bit) Value, type LogPixels, and press Enter.

7. Select (dot) Decimal, type in the registry data value from the table below for the DPI scaling size you want, and click/tap on OK.

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DPI percentage	Registry Data Value
Smaller 100%	96
Medium 125%	120
Larger 150%	144
Extra Large 200%	192
Custom 250%	240
Custom 300%	288
Custom 400%	384
Custom 500%	480

8. Close Registry Editor.

9. Sign out and in, or restart the PC to apply changes.

OPTION THREE DPI Scaling Size - Change for Displays in Windows 8.1

To Restore 96 DPI Scaling for All Displays using a REG File

Note

This option can be handy if you accidentally set the DPI to large and everything is extended way past the display screen, making them distorted and unreadable.

You could also boot into Safe Mode and change the DPI scaling back to a smaller number/percentage using OPTION ONE or OPTION TWO above.

1. Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below.

Restore_Default_96_DPI.reg

2. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

3. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

4. Click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK when prompted.

5. Sign out and in, or restart the PC to apply changes.

6. When finished, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

**power1power1** · 15 Nov 2013

Hi Brink, Is it possible to manually set different DPI percentages to each monitor? Say, set the first monitor at 127% and the second monitor at 132%. Thanks!

**Brink** · 15 Nov 2013

Hello Power1,

I'm afraid not unless some 3rd party software may be able to. DPI is a global setting.

If you like, you cold set a different screen resolution per display that may help. The smaller the resolution, the larger the items will be on the display.

Screen Resolution - Set for Displays in Windows 8

Hope this helps some,

Shawn

**power1power1** · 15 Nov 2013

Thanks for the reply. Do you know of any freeware that might be able to do it? About the screen resolution, that is a good suggestion. Is there a way to set the resolution to a non-predefined value?
Another question: In item 5 above, what does it actually change in the registry?

**Brink** · 15 Nov 2013

If you mean step 5 in Option One, then that's the pixel value for what you want the DPI to be.

I'm afraid that I don't know of any program that will give you separate DPI settings per display.

**power1power1** · 15 Nov 2013

Yes, that's the one I was referring to. I thought Windows 8.1 does some sort of per monitor adjustment and I was thinking of overwriting the registry values manually.

**Brink** · 15 Nov 2013

Unfortunately not with DPI. Only with the screen resolution.

**power1power1** · 15 Nov 2013

OK, thanks anyways. Please let us know if you came across any solution for this.

**Brink** · 15 Nov 2013

I sure will.

The best that you could do so far is step 5 in Option One to have Windows automatically set the proper DPI scaling per display.

**Sil** · 06 Mar 2014

The dpi scaling in Windows 8.1 still sucks big time:

1. Apparently the scaling API was not well conceived and inferior to that of Mac OS X. That's at least how Adobe justifies the problems with Photoshop on high resolution monitors, which don't appear with OS X.

2. Multiple monitor. Until it is possible to choose dpi scaling per monitor dpi scaling will suck.
I'm working everyday on a 3200x1800 laptop bound to a 27" 2560w1440 monitor.
- Either I configure the laptop to not destroy my eyes (e.g 200 % scaling) and the the display on the 27" is way too big and most pixels are lost.
- Or I do the opposite, configure a decent dpi for the 27" inch and kiss goodbye to my eyesight on laptop.
- Further compounding the problem is Internet explorer, because it syncs zoom %. I like to have IE11 Metro on the laptop screen and IE11 desktop on the external screen. But if I adjust zooming on one it with break the other.