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1. 200 Activate 202 Intermediary Driver Look To See Where DPI Settings Are Stored amp Record Offset 223 Are There Any Saved DPI Settings For The Current Resolution 225 Write Saved DPI Settings Into System GDI Info Structure Recorded Offset 5 477 241 1 METHOD OF RESETTING A COMPUTER VIDEO DISPLAY MODE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to a mechanism for adjusting selected video display characteristics in a computer system More particularly an arrangement for controlling the number of dots that are displayed on a video screen per inch of printed output DPI is described In most modern personal computer systems the video display monitor is controlled by a dedicated video card that has a plurality of software based display drivers The oper ating system selects which display driver is to be used and then stores information about the screen characteristics as dictated by the selected driver That information is then used by both the operating system and any application that has the need to know any screen characteristics One char acteristic that the display driver must set is the number of display pixels that will be used to represent one inch of printed output This is commonly referred to as the display s DPI dots per inch The DPI characteristics must be set in both the horizontal X and vertical Y directions Although it is not required2. is a flow diagram illustrating a method of recording the default DPI settings and the location at which the DPI settings are stored by the system FIG 9 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of restoring the DPI settings to user selected values after the operating system has been restarted DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As shown in FIG 1 a computer system 10 suitable for executing the present invention includes a central processing unit CPU 12 a bi directional memory bus 14 which couples the CPU to memory 16 and memory mapped peripherals 18 and a bi directional peripheral bus 20 which connects the CPU to a variety of peripheral devices The memory 14 typically takes the form of both read only memory ROM and random access memory RAM Memory mapped peripherals typically include video adapt ers and data storage devices A variety of peripheral devices can be coupled to the peripheral bus 20 By way of example peripherals devices that are frequently connected to the peripheral bus include a video card 22 which controls a display monitor 24 a Winchester type hard disc drive 26 a floppy disc drive 27 and or CD ROM 28 Additionally a keyboard 30 and a pointer device 32 such as a mouse or track ball are typically connected directly to the CPU 12 Both the keyboard and the pointer device are arranged to function as user input devices As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art a wide variety of other peripheral devic
3. is an object of the present invention to provide such a system SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION To achieve the foregoing and other objects and in accor dance with the purpose of the present invention a screen commanding mechanism and user interface is provided that permits a user to select the number of display pixels are used to represent a designated unit length of printed output in a computer system s display screen The screen commander is arranged to determine the locations at which the operating system stores the current DPI setting Then when a com mand is received from a user to adjust the DPI settings the desired new DPI setting are stored in the current DPI settings location In a preferred user interface aspect of the invention a DPI settings dialog box is displayed when the user chooses to review or alter the DPI settings In a preferred embodiment the dialog box includes a pair of graphic rulers that display respective horizontal and vertical desired DPI settings in the form of rulers Each ruler may have an associated slider bar having a slider thereon that the user may use to adjust the desired DPI setting Additionally a plurality of display boxes may be provided for displaying the current and desired DPI settings in alphanumeric form In another pre ferred embodiment a button may be provided to permit the user to automatically select the default DPI settings as the desired DPI settings In a preferred method aspect of the
4. shown the dialog box 70 displays the current DPI settings in both the horizontal X and vertical Y directions The horizontal setting 73 is labeled Current X and the vertical setting 75 is labeled Current Y in the drawings Additionally any newly selected DPI settings 77 and 79 for the new hori zontal and vertical settings respectively are displayed adja cent the labels New X and New Y respectively Further buttons 80 and 81 are provided to enable the user to automatically reselect the original default DPI settings that were provided by the display driver The newly selected DPI settings are also graphically displayed using rulers 83 and 84 The rulers 83 for horizontal and 84 for vertical are drawn to scale as seen by the display so that one unit display length as shown on the ruler equals one unit length of printed output For the purposes of this discussion the unit length will be one inch although any other unit length could be used in its place In the embodiment shown quarter and half inch markers are made as well In order to input new desired DPI settings the user may either type the desired settings into the appropriate boxes 77 and 79 or may use the handy graphical rulers 83 84 and their associated slider bars 86 87 To adjust the DPI settings using the rulers the user grabs the slider on the slider bar and moves it When the slider is moved the length of the DPI setting is adjusted acc
5. system assumes that there is a new entry and the logic proceeds from step 108 to step 109 On the other hand anytime the Cancel button 92 is selected the logic assumes that no new entries are desired and the result of step 108 is that no new DPI settings are to be entered In this case the process is completed In step 109 the newly selected DPI settings are written into the system and a DPI data file After the newly 5 477 241 7 selected DPI settings have been stored the DPI calibration routine is completed The selected X and Y DPI settings are written into the operating system by writing the desired value to the memory offset location where the DPI settings are stored Of course the actual memory offset locations are expected to vary from system to system from machine to machine and even between boots on the same machine with some operating systems In many operating systems such as DOS based Windows systems the operating system sends a reguest to the display driver during initialization asking the display driver to give the system information about the video display s characteristics Among the information returned are value indicative of the DPI settings in both the horizontal and vertical directions When this information is returned it is important for the screen commanding utility to detect where the DPI settings information is stored This is done at system startup That is when the operating system is launched W
6. the user enters a command that calls the DPI calibration function In practice this is normally done by selecting the DPI calibration icon 57 that is located in either utility window 49 or the toolbar 60 Alternatively the call could be generated by the acts of selecting a menu item in a pull down menu by inputting a keyboard commands or in any other suitable manner When the DPI calibration func tion is called the logic moves to step 103 where the current system DPI settings are obtained That is the settings in both the X and Y directions By way of example in a Windows based operating system this may be accomplished by mak ing two Get Device Caps calls one for each axis Once the current settings have been obtained the logic moves to step 105 where it displays the dialog box 70 After the dialog box has been displayed the logic moves to step 107 where any user inputs are processed Newly selected DPI settings will be among the user inputs When the user is finished making any inputs the logic effectively goes to step 108 where it determines whether the user has selected any new DPI settings The processing step 107 is completed when the user selects either the OK button 91 or the Cancel button 92 In the described embodiment when the dialog box is displayed in step 105 the current DPI settings are inserted as the initial new DPI settings With this arrangement anytime the user selects the OK button the
7. vp Ba 77 80 92 81 Default Y Default X u ga Microsoft Access System rJ WinBook U S Patent Dec 19 1995 Sheet 4 of 8 5 477 241 Program Manager File Options Window Help Current vim Cure xp New YON MC acl Options DDID L Microsoft U 86 Access i AnyView System U S Patent Dec 19 1995 Sheet 5 of 8 5 477 241 N Pv S80 1 NM File Options Window Help 95 Current Resolution 8 640 x 480 800 x 600 O 1024 x 768 01280 x 1024 Pop Microsoft Access System LI WinBook U S Patent Dec 19 1995 Sheet 6 of 8 5 477 241 101 a Call DPI Calibration Function Get Current 103 System DPI Settings 105 Display Dialog 9 Box 07 Process User l A ave New DPI Settings Been Entered 109 Write Selected DPI Settings Into System amp DPI Application Data File Fig 6 U S Patent Dec 19 1995 Sheet 7 of 8 5 477 241 as A New DPI Setting Been Entered In The Settings Box Change Value Of New DPI Settings To Inputted Value Display Inputted Value In New Value Box Ruler amp Slider Bar Display amp Process Options Box as Option Been Selected Process Selected Function Function Been Selected as O K Been N Yes Selected No as Cancel Been Yes Selected 148 fig 7 U S Patent Dec 19 1995 Sheet 8 of 8 5 477 241
8. 77 and 79 The second is a graphic representation in the form of rulers 83 and 84 The logic of the user input processing step in the described embodiment is shown in FIG 7 Initially the logic checks to determine whether a new DPI setting has been entered This can be done in three ways The first is inputting a value directly into a new settings box This is checked in step 130 The second is by moving the slider which is checked in step 136 The third is by selecting a default button which is checked in step 138 When a new DPI setting is entered in any one of these manners the logic moves to step 132 where the value of the new DPI settings is changed to the inputted value Then in step 134 the inputted value i e the revised new DPI setting is dis played in the appropriate new value box 77 79 in the appropriate ruler 83 or 84 and the appropriate slider box 86 87 Thereafter the logic moves to step 140 Similarly if no new DPI settings have been inputted the logic will flow to step 140 In step 140 the logic determines whether the option button has been selected If so the options dialog box is displayed and any user inputs are processed in step 14 If not the logic flows to step 142 where it determines whether any 10 15 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 other specific functions have been selected such as the help function If so the selected function is processed as necessary If
9. Examiner Steven J Saras Attorney Agent or Firm Hickman amp Beyer 57 ABSTRACT A screen commanding utility is provided that permits a user to select the number of display pixels are used to represent a designated unit length of printed output in a computer system s display screen The screen commander is arranged to determine the location s at which the operating system stores the current DPI setting Then when a command is received from a user to adjust the DPI settings the desired new DPI setting are stored in the current DPI settings location s 20 Claims 8 Drawing Sheets Program Manager File Qptions Window Help 75 7 p Current VISE Current x Bor E New Y49k New XISS Cancel 77 Cancel 92 pop Pda Microsoft Access System LJ WinBook 81 80 87 5 477 241 Sheet 1 of 8 Dec 19 1995 U S Patent ve 8c lz CG 9c orn aW ACW Oc QuVOS8A3M og Ndo CI CE vi zuscomr moo 8l S Ivu3HdlH3d Q3ddvMW AYOWAW AHONW3MW 91 U S Patent Dec 19 1995 Sheet 2 of 8 5 477 241 Program Manager M File Options Window Help Anyview 800x600 1024x768 16 colors 256 colors 32K colors B eat y Access 16M colors Zoom Virtual Birds Eye E 9 AnyView D D i JE Desktop View System r WinBook U S Patent Dec 19 1995 Sheet 3 of 8 5 477 241 Program Manager File Options Window Help 75 7 Current Y S6P Current XEY New
10. United States Patent 9 Higgins et al HAT UE T US005477241A 5 477 241 Dec 19 1995 ui Patent Number 54 METHOD OF RESETTING A COMPUTER VIDEO DISPLAY MODE 75 Inventors Paul J Higgins Sebastopol Scott D Vouri Petaluma both of Calif 73 Assignee Binar Graphics Incorporated San Rafael Calif 21 Appl No 124 386 22 Filed Sep 20 1993 i51 int 61 elici G09G 5 00 52 US CE sete 345 127 345 132 345 902 395 155 58 Field of Search 345 118 119 345 127 132 146 902 131 138 395 155 156 157 161 128 139 102 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 672 683 6 1987 Matsueda cere 382 57 4 831 556 5 1989 OOM eere 345 127 4 837 635 6 1989 Santos eere 358 401 4 931 956 6 1990 Stapleton nene 364 521 4 954 970 9 1990 Walker et al 364 521 45 Date of Patent 5 051 929 9 1991 Tutt et al sss 364 521 5 065 346 11 1991 Kawai et al 395 128 340 723 5 119 081 6 1992 kehira 5 142 616 8 1992 Kellas et al 395 135 5 179 639 1 1993 Taaffe 395 128 5 227 771 7 1993 Kerr et al 395 157 5 265 246 11 1993 Li et ab ss 395 600 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Aldus Photostyler User Manual Second Edition Jun 1992 pp 66 69 86 87 90 91 94 99 176 181 Primary Examiner Richard Hjerpe Assistant
11. ains the utilities of the present invention is referred to as the Anyview utility window in the drawings As seen in FIG 2 the utility window 49 has a multiplicity of icons therein that can be selected by the user By way of example the utility window 49 may include a plurality of screen resolu tion icons 50 a plurality of color depth icons 52 a zoom icon 54 a virtual desktop icon 56 a DPI calibration icon 57 a bird s eye view icon 58 and other icons 59 which permit the user to control the video display in other manners The function and operation of the utilities represented by the screen resolution icons 50 the color depth icons 52 the zoom icon 54 the virtual desktop icon 56 and the bird s eye view icon 58 are described in applicant s co pending appli cation Ser No 08 023 945 filed Feb 26 1993 now U S Pat No 5 420 605 which is incorporated herein by refer ence In addition to the icon based user interface described above a toolbar 60 is provided The user may optionally have the toolbar displayed at all times The toolbar 60 has a number of icons therein The user is permitted to add any of the icons in the utility window 49 to the toolbar When the user selects an icon in the toolbar the corresponding func tion is executed just as if the icon has been selected from the utility window 49 Thus the user is provided with a mecha nism for adding icons to and removing icons from the toolbar The toolbar editing interfa
12. ap measures How ever none give the user real control over the display size For example one common approach in word processing applications is to change the font size of the text during inputting and editing However requiring the user to change font sizes is inconvenient and can lead to all kinds of formatting difficulties Another approach is to switch the screen resolution However in order to switch the screen resolution it is typically necessary to exit any open appli cation s exit Windows in Windows based systems and then change the screen resolution in DOS This is typically accomplished by loading a new driver program or in the case of changing the screen resolution using a multi reso lution driver the application requesting the new resolution saves the desired resolution values to the disk before exiting Windows After the new driver has been loaded or the appropriate resolution values saved both Windows and the desired application programs must be restarted Obviously 10 20 25 30 35 45 50 55 65 2 this procedure is slow and cumbersome Further when the resolution is changed the user is limited to the DPI associ ated with the newly selected resolution which may not be satisfactory In view of these drawbacks a system arranged to give the user the ability to control the number of display pixels that are used to represent a given distance of print output would be desirable Accordingly it
13. ce is opened by selecting an appropriate editing command from a pull down menu which displays a dialog box The toolbar editing interface is described in the referenced application The DPI calibration icon 57 activates the user interface for the utility of the present invention More specifically the DPI calibration icon represents a utility which is intended to give the user the power and flexibility to set the number of pixels in the display monitor that are displayed to represent a designated length of printed output when the displayed information is printed In the United States the number of display pixels allotted per unit of printed output is usually referred to as the number of dots i e pixels per inch which gives rise to the acronym DPI The described feature has several uses For example in windows applications one complaint that is frequently voiced by users of desktop publishing software is that what is displayed on the screen is not sized the same as the printed output By giving the users the ability to calibrate the screen s DPI this problem can be eliminated Other users may wish to vary the dis played DPI in order to increase or decrease the size of the displayed information to meet a particular need without altering the screen resolution When the DPI calibration icon 57 is selected a DPI 5 477 241 5 editing dialog box 70 is displayed A representative dialog box is shown in FIGS 3 and 4 In the embodiment
14. computer system is shut down the current DPI settings will be lost by the operating system Thus the next time the system is started the display will return to the default DPI settings In many situations it may be desirable to automatically reset the DPI settings to the values selected by the user when the system is restarted The manner in which this is accomplished will be described with respect to FIG 9 As indicated above with reference to step 109 when new DPI settings are selected the values are saved in a DPI application data file The DPI application data file is stored in non volatile memory There fore when the operating system is rebooted the information will be available Referring specifically to FIG 9 the automatic recall of the saved DPI settings begins when the user launches the screen commander utility Step 221 This 5 477 241 9 can be done in any conventional manner Then in step 223 the logic checks to determine whether there are any saved DPI settings in the DPI application data file that correspond to the current screen resolution If so the saved DPI settings are written into the system GDI info structure at the recorded offset in step 225 When this is accomplished the selected DPI settings have been put in place and the recalling function is completed On the other hand if in step 223 it is determined that there are no stored DPI settings then the recalling function is completed at that point In o
15. described in conjunction with an IBM PC compatible personal com puter using an MS DOS based Windows operating system However the invention can also be adapted for use with other computers and operating systems as well Therefore the present examples are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein but may be modified within the scope of the appended claims We claim 1 A method of altering the display characteristics of a video display of a computer system that is operated under the control of an operating system wherein the video display is controlled by a display driver that cooperates with the operating system the display driver having a predetermined default dots per inch DPI setting indicative of the number of display pixels that are to be used to represent a designated length of printed output for a designated resolution the default DPI setting being stored as a current DPI setting in a designated data structure the method comprising the steps of determining the location of the current DPI setting in the designated data structure receiving an input indicative of a desired DPI setting and storing the desired DPI setting in the location of the current DPI setting whereby the DPI settings for the entire operating system are changed without requiring any currently open application programs to be exited 2 A method as recited in claim 1 further comp
16. er comprising the step of repainting the screen after the desired DPI setting has been stored 13 A user interface for permitting a user to adjust the number of display pixels that correspond to a designated length of printed output having dot per inch settings DPI settings in a computer system having a display screen for displaying images and an operating system for controlling the execution of programs by the computer system the operating system being arranged to access a designated data 5 477 241 11 structure that includes a current DPI setting location that is used to store information indicative of the number of display pixels that correspond to a designated length of printed output for a designated resolution the user interface com prising means for determining the current DPI setting location means for receiving an input indicative of a desired new DPI setting and means for storing the desired new DPI setting in the current DPI settings location whereby the DPI settings for the operating system are changed without requiring currently open application programs to be exited 14 A user interface as recited in claim 13 further com prising means for displaying the current DPI setting and the desired new DPI setting 15 A user interface as recited in claim 14 wherein the display means includes a graphic display that displays the desired DPI setting in the form of a ruler 16 A user interface as recited in claim 15 wherei
17. es can be connected to either the peripheral bus or the memory bus and the buses which connect the described peripherals to the CPU can be switched and or additional buses can be added The video display controlling utility of the present inven tion may be applied to a variety of computer systems running a variety of different operating systems However for the purposes of illustration the described embodiment will take the form of a utility program for use with a personal computer that is executing an MS DOS based Windows operating system marketed by Microsoft Corporation Accordingly the described embodiment is icon based which gives the user quick access to its most often used features The described embodiment of the present invention is divided into portions The first portion includes the user interface which is based in an application program For the purposes of the description that follows a general familiar ity with the Microsoft Windows Software Developers Kit SDK version 3 1 1992 which is published by Microsoft Corp is assumed The second portion of the invention is based in the display driver and is required to facilitate communication with the computer hardware For the pur poses of the description a general familiarity of the Microsoft Windows Device Drivers Developers Kit DDK version 3 1 1992 which is published by Microsoft Corp is assumed Additionally as is well know to those skilled in the device d
18. ewith wherein the desired DPI settings are specific to a particular resolution 9 A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the designated data structure is an operating system based data structure and the default DPI setting is stored when the operating system is initiated 10 A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the operating system is Microsoft Windows and the designated data struc ture is a graphic device interface GDI information struc ture 11 A method of setting the display characteristics of a video display wherein the video display is controlled by a display driver having a predetermined default dots per inch DPI setting indicative of the number of display pixels that are to be used to represent a designated length of printed output for a designated resolution the default DPI setting for an operating system being stored as a current DPI setting in a designated data structure the method comprising the steps of determining the location of the current DPI setting in the designated data structure checking a known location in a selected data file to determine whether a desired DPI setting has been saved and when a desired DPI setting has been saved in the selected data file storing the desired DPI setting in the location of the current DPI setting whereby the DPI setting for the operating system are changed without requiring currently open application programs to be exited 12 A method as recited in claim 11 furth
19. hen the operating system is launched the screen commanding utility will record the offset in the GDI Graphic Device Interface info structure or its equivalent where the system stores the DPI settings In most operating systems this information is stored only at one location and will not be moved Of course if the information is stored in more than one spot it would be necessary to either record or search for the other locations as well When a particular application requires information about the DPI settings a request is made a Get Device Caps request in Windows to the system to return these values The request is responded to by providing the values stored in the designated DPI settings memory offset location Therefore in order to change the DPI settings the screen commander application only need to write the desired DPI settings in the designated memory offset location In step 109 the logic also saves the desired DPI settings in a DPI Application Data File As will be explained in more detail below with reference to FIG 9 this data file is used to save the settings so that they can be reused after the system has been shut down and rebooted Referring next to FIG 7 the user input processing step 107 and 108 will be described in more detail As indicated above the dialog box displays the current and new DPI settings The new settings are displayed in two manners The first is numeric representations in the boxes
20. invention the current DPI setting are stored in a designated data structure the desired DPI setting are also stored in non volatile memory so that at system startup time the system can be set up to automatically reload the last desired DPI setting associated with the particular resolution BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention together with further objects and advan tages thereof may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accom panying drawings in which FIG 1 is a block diagram of a computer system that is suitable for operating the present invention FIG 2 is a screen display showing a representative opened window that contains a Windows based user inter face for a computer display mode controlling utility in accordance with the present invention FIG 3 is a screen display showing a dialog box style user interface that permits a user to set the number of dots per inch that are displayed FIG 4 is the screen display shown in FIG 3 after the user has altered the DPI settings FIG 5 is a screen display showing a DPI Options dialog box suitable for use in a system capable of supporting multiple screen resolutions FIG 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a suitable process for altering the DPI setting in a computer system 5 477 241 3 FIG 7 is a flow diagram illustrating the user input processing steps 107 and 108 of the process set forth in FIG 6 FIG 8
21. it is common to use the same DPI value for both the horizontal and the vertical directions so that the displayed image is not distorted For a variety of reasons the number of dots per inch indicated by the display driver to represent an inch of output commonly occupy more than an inch of screen space One explanation is the assumption that the screen resolution is generally not as good as the resolution of printed matter so it is easier on the user s eyes when the displayed materials are larger than the printed text Another reason may be that users tend not to sit as close to a video display as they would hold a piece of paper In any event the values selected by the display drivers are not always optimal for specific user needs For example users of desktop publishing software commonly prefer that the image displayed have exactly the same measurements as the printed output Other users may wish to have the displays appear larger so that text can be read more easily or may wish a page or portion thereof to occupy a fixed portion of the screen or the entire screen Currently one of the most popular operating systems for IBM PC compatible personal computers is the MS DOS based Windows operating system marketed by Microsoft Corporation In Windows like most DOS based systems it is not possible to change the displayed DPI for any particular display driver The size of the displayed information can be altered somewhat by a variety of stop g
22. lay respective horizontal and vertical desired DPI settings in the form of rulers each ruler having an associated slider bar having a slider thereon that the user may use to adjust the desired DPI setting a plurality of display boxes for displaying the current and desired DPI settings in alphanumeric form a button for permitting the user to automatically select the default DPI settings as the desired DPI settings and means for storing the desired new DPI setting in the current DPI settings location whereby the DPI settings for the entire operating system are changed without requiring currently open application programs to be exited
23. led ruler is drawn Thus the inch mark is drawn at a location that is X pixels for the horizontal ruler or Y pixels for the vertical ruler away from the reference The location of the half and quarter marks are easily calculated on a proportional basis Then as many additional marks are drawn as are appropriate for the ruler which is of a fixed length within the dialog box The dialog box 70 also has four buttons labeled OK Cancel Options and Help The O K button 91 is intended to be selected when the user is satisfied with the selected DPI settings Activation of the O K button will cause the newly selected DPI settings to be stored and implemented The Cancel button 92 is intended to be selected when the user does not wish to change the current DPI settings Selection of the Options button 93 causes a 10 15 20 30 50 55 65 6 options dialog box 95 to be displayed Selection of the Help button 94 is intended to provide the user with assistance on the use of the dialog box 70 The options dialog box 95 will be described with refer ence to FIG 5 The options box permits the user to select the desired DPI settings for each resolution in a system arranged to support a plurality of screen resolutions As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art the default DPI settings are often varied based upon the screen resolution For example windows based drivers typical
24. ly set the DPI settings to 96 dots per inch in resolutions bellow 1024x768 while resolutions of 1024x768 and above are typically set to 120 dots per inch For a variety of reasons the user may not wish to have the same DPI settings for each potential resolution especially in systems having a screen command ing utility that permits on the fly resolution switching as described in the above referenced co pending application Therefore the described embodiment permit users to vary the DPI settings for each resolution The options box permits the users to adjust the DPI settings with respect to each supported screen resolution The option dialog box 95 includes a resolution choosing box 96 that lists each resolution supported by the driver By selecting a particular resolution the user can adjust the DPI settings associated with the selected resolution After the appropriate resolution has been selected the user may enter the chosen resolution by selecting the OK button 98 Alter natively if the user simply wishes to cancel the options box 95 they may do so by selecting the Cancel button 99 When either the Cancel or OK button has been chosen the user will be returned to dialog box 70 which permits editing of the DPI settings for the selected resolution Referring next to FIGS 6 9 a method of switching the DPI settings in accordance with the present invention will be described Turning initially to FIG 6 the process begins at step 101 when
25. n system startup step 200 At some point during the startup the driver is activated when the system loads the specified driver into an initialization file When Microsoft Windows is used as the operating system the specified driver is loaded into a windows initialization file called SYSTEM INI In the described embodiment of the present invention an interme diary driver utility is inserted between the system and the driver The intermediary driver utility is specified in the initialization file rather than a specific driver Step 202 At a later point step 204 the intermediary driver utility loads the appropriate display driver The driver then returns a series of information about the display This is written by the system into a GDI Graphical Device Interface Info Struc ture Among the information returned are the X and Y DPI settings designated by the driver The intermediary driver utility records these settings as the default DPI settings in step 207 Then in step 208 the intermediary driver utility tracks the offset in the GDI Info Structure where the DPI settings are written The actual memory offset locations are expected to vary from system to system from machine to machine and even between boots on the same machine with some operating systems After the memory offset location has been recorded the process is completed and the oper ating system will continue with its startup routine It should be appreciated that when the
26. n the graphic display further comprising a slider bar having a slider thereon that the user may use to adjust the desired DPI setting 17 A user interface as recited in claim 15 wherein the graphic display includes a pair of rulers including a hori zontally oriented ruler and a vertically oriented ruler 18 A user interface as recited in claim 14 further com prising a default button for permitting the user to automati cally select a default DPI setting as the desired DPI setting 19 A user interface as recited in claim 14 wherein the display means includes a plurality of display boxes for displaying the current and desired DPI settings 10 20 25 12 20 A user interface for permitting a user to adjust the number of display pixels that correspond to a designated length of printed output having dot per inch settings DPI settings in a computer system having a display screen for displaying images and an operating system for controlling the execution of programs by the computer system the operating system including a designated data structure that includes a current DPI setting location that is used to store an indication of the number of display pixels that correspond to a designated length of printed output for a designated resolution the user interface comprising means for determining the current DPI setting location means for receiving an input indicative of a desired new DPI setting a pair of graphic rulers that disp
27. ne preferred embodiment the driver is set up some what different than many display drivers Specifically at Windows run time only the intermediary driver utility is installed The intermediary driver utility is a small section of code with a pointer table The bulk of the code is saved in driver libraries such that each supported color depth has a unique library Thereafter when Windows makes its first call to the driver the driver library for the selected color depth is loaded and initialized The described intermediary driver installation technique is particularly well suited for use with the present invention since it allows the DPI settings to be recorded regardless of which driver is selected without requiring each driver to be modified to record the settings On the other hand in other driver setups each driver could be modified to record the default settings and the location in which the DPI settings are stored in the GDI file Although only one embodiment of the present invention with some variations has been described in detail it should be understood that the present invention may be embodied in many other specific forms without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention Particularly in many instances the ordering of the steps can be altered without defeating the purpose of the invention Similarly some steps can be eliminated and others added without departing from the scope of the invention The invention has been
28. not the logic moves to step 146 where it checks to determine whether the O K button has been selected If so this indicates that the user is satisfied with the new DPI settings and the logic proceeds to step 109 described above where the new DPI settings are stored If the O K button has not been selected the logic checks to determine whether the cancel button has been selected If so the user is indicat ing an intention to change the DPI settings at this time and the entire process is completed If neither the O K nor the Cancel button has been selected the logic loops back to step 130 where it begins looking for new DPI setting changes This process is continued until either the O K or the Cancel button is selected In the foregoing explanation the process has been described as if the checking routine is serial in nature and constantly running However as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art in practice such a checking algorithm is not specifically required Rather in practice the various described checking steps i e steps 130 136 138 140 142 146 and 148 are call routines which are executed when called The manner in which the functions are called is by selecting their associated buttons or writing in their associ ated boxes Referring next to FIG 8 a suitable method for detecting the system s storage location for the DPI settings will be described The method begins at the initiatio
29. ordingly Thus by way of example if a user wants the display to have identical dimensions as the printed output the user can place a ruler against the screen and adjust the slider until an inch on the screen equals an inch on the ruler Proportional adjustments can be done in the same way Alternatively the user can simply move the slider to a position that is subjectively appealing As the slider is moved the values of the corre sponding DPI settings are displayed in the appropriate newly selected DPI setting box 77 or 79 When the default buttons 80 and or 81 are selected the corresponding default values are displayed in the associated ruler and newly selected DPI setting box A representative change in the desired DPI settings is shown in FIG 4 As can be seen therein the horizontal DPI settings has been changed from the original default setting of 96 DPI which is the current DPI setting to a new setting of 55 DPI Similarly the vertical DPI setting has been changed from the default again 96 DPI to 49 DPI As can be seen in the figure both the horizontal and vertical rulers are redrawn to scale in order to give the user a graphical image of the newly chosen settings The manner in which the ruler is drawn is straight forward In essence the reference i e zero inches is located at a fixed point within the dialog box The ruled dimensions are then calculated based on the new DPI settings Then the properly sca
30. rising the step of repainting the screen after the desired DPI setting has been stored 3 A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the 10 20 25 30 35 45 50 55 60 65 10 steps of storing the desired DPI setting in a settings file stored in non volatile memory and at a system startup time checking the settings file to determine whether a desired DPI setting has been stored and if so storing the desired DPI setting in the location of the current DPI setting 4 A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the step of receiving an adjust DPI characteristic command from a user displaying a dialog box that displays the current DPI setting in response to the adjust DPI characteristics command and displaying the desired DPI settings input by the user 5 A method as recited in claim 4 wherein the desired DPI settings are displayed in both textual and graphic form 6 A method as recited in claim 5 wherein the displayed graphic desired DPI settings include a vertically oriented ruler and a horizontally oriented ruler 7 A method as recited in claim 6 wherein the displayed graphic desired DPI settings further include a pair of slider bars each having an associated slider for adjusting the DPI settings 8 A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the computer system is arranged to support a plurality of resolutions and each supported resolution has a default DPI setting associ ated ther
31. river programming for Windows art the reference Undocumented Windows written by Schul man et al and published by Addison Wesley in 1992 is a great help when writing driver level code and a generally familiarity with its contents is assumed Each of these references is incorporated herein by reference Familiarity with the programming in the Windows operating system environment wil be assumed for the purposes of this 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 application In the described embodiment the driver is set up some what different than many display drivers Specifically at Windows run time only the intermediary driver utility is installed The intermediary driver utility is a small section of code with a pointer table The bulk of the code is saved in driver libraries such that each supported color depth has a unique library Thereafter when Windows makes its first call to the driver the driver library for the selected color depth is loaded and initialized The described intermediary driver installation technique is particularly well suited for use with the present invention since it allows the DPI settings to be recorded regardless of which driver is selected without requiring each driver to be modified to record the settings The application program based icon interface portion of the present invention may be stored in the program manager window 48 of Windows The utility window 49 that cont
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