The difference between points and pixels on Windows causes problems in some programs such as PaintShop Pro and Macromedia Flash.

PaintShop Pro only allows type to be specified in points and doesn’t accept the fractional point sizes necessary to do the conversion – 10 pixels = 7.5 points.

Flash only allows line spacing to be set in points, not pixels, so multi-line text can go out of sync with the screens natural pixel grid.

Temporarily setting Windows to run at 72 pixels per inch instead of its default 96 ppi solves these problems completely. Once you have made your files, you can switch back.

Here’s how you do it.

1. Right-click on the desktop and choose ‘Properties’ to bring up the ‘Display Properties’ dialog.
2. Click on the ‘Settings’ tab.
3. Click the ‘Advanced’ button.
4. You will see the DPI Setting pop-up menu, which will be set to ‘Normal Size [96 DPI]‘.
5. At the bottom of the pop-up menu, you will find the ‘Custom Settings’ item – choose it.
6. Set the scale to 75% and you should see a sample of Arial 10 point at 72 pixels per inch, which is what we want.
7. Click on ‘OK’ and you will be prompted to restart Windows.

When Windows restarts, everything on the screen will be 75% smaller than it was before. You can compensate by changing the screen resolution if things look too small. If you work at 1024 x 768, change to 800 x 600. Note: you should only do this on a conventional cathode ray tube monitor. LCD monitors don’t run satisfactorily at anything other than their natural resolution – just like pixel fonts – and will anti-alias everything. On an LCD monitor, change the window zoom to 200% to see what you are doing.

Now, you are working at 72 pixels per inch and pixel and points are identical so PSP and Flash will render pixel fonts as they should.

To revert to 96 ppi, just do the same procedure again but choose ‘Normal Size [96 DPI]‘.