Hello, Firstly apologies for any errors, I'm sight impaired. I use a Samsung s7 plus tablet & stream it to the TV for ease of use.
I've just been bought the Samsung Pro 2 360 laptop thing with Windows 11 & I have a trial of Dolphin Supernova 21.1 on it, magnifier & speech.
I'm trying not to have a complete meltdown & feel as if this huge amount of money has been spent on me for no reason.
The tablet is perfectly clear but font etc. too small. The laptop is magnified (due to supernova) but it isn't clear at all.
Cleartype for example, the first two pages of cleartype setting is fine, go to the third option & the font brakes up.
I can't post the images here for some reason.
Edge is ridiculous, it's okay in IE mode, but the settings, I can't see at all, they magnify in a broken font that's a weird colour.
I don't understand why all the font etc is so so clear on the tablet then awful on this new expensive laptop.
I just don't know what to do. I can't take it back, I don't want to I want to make it work. I don't want to spend hundreds on dolphin supernova, if the tablet is clearer screenshairing to the TV.
Anyone have any ideas? Thanks SM
rory-games3 points1y ago
I haven't heard great things about supernova. In fact, I've heard awful things about it. Perhaps try a different magnifying software? I'm not sure which, as I'm fully blind and haven't researched it much, but supposedly they refuse to keep up with modern technologies.
Winnmark3 points1y ago
Windows 10's built-in screen magnifier is pretty solid
slinkymoonlight [OP]2 points1y ago
Well I was researching assistive software & discovered free NVAD Wow. I changed my "theme" on the laptop to a high contrast one, tweaked the colours, put on the laptop magnifier & I have to say it's better than supernova. I downloaded the speech add on & think I can probably make do with this instead of paying out. Increasing the display font in the Samsung settings means it magnifies clearer, happy days. I'm struggling on chrome where the display is big & there's no way to scroll, so not sure how to fix that. But positive steps.
reganadler1 points1y ago
I really like NVDA too, and the built in windows narrator is also pretty decent for our use cases. The built in magnifiers for the operating system do usually look the nicest, in my experience. You can also install Power Toys and it will give you mouse crosshairs and a mouse finder. I believe Windows also has some native options for things like text cursor thickness and color if you need that.
slinkymoonlight [OP]1 points1y ago
Well I was researching assistive software & discovered free NVAD Wow. I changed my "theme" on the laptop to a high contrast one, tweaked the colours, put on the laptop magnifier & I have to say it's better than supernova. I downloaded the speech add on & think I can probably make do with this instead of paying out. Increasing the display font in the Samsung settings means it magnifies clearer, happy days. I'm struggling on chrome where the display is big & there's no way to scroll, so not sure how to fix that. But positive steps.
CloudyBeep3 points1y ago
Why not contact the company from whom Supernova was purchased? They will be able to assist you if people here cannot.
TechnicalPragmatist2 points1y ago
Whoever recommended super nova to you isn’t doing it justice. If you use something like the latest version of zoom text, does it do the same thing?
slinkymoonlight [OP]2 points1y ago
I use supernova at work. I figured the issues I get with supernova were my corporate background rule things, if that makes sense.
I downloaded a trial of zoomtext & it does exactly the same thing.
I have two very old disk copies, supernova & zoomtext.
I can upgrade these, supernova is £335 zoomtext is £430
I think the issue is Windows accessibility & edge being stupid. But clearly I'm not an expert here. Had no issues in IE with fonts, hence IE mode now, but as soon as I click the menu bar it all goes to pot & menus like start, settings etc, the font is ridiculous there too.
Gmail won't go into IE mode at all either.
Zoomtext would only allow a 40 minute trial at a time which is weird. Supernova I've got 30 days to try & figure something out. So far, all I want to do is throw it all in the bin.
I'm familiar with supernova, though had zoomtext when I first lost my sight hence the very old disks.
Thanks.
TechnicalPragmatist2 points1y ago
Have you tried on a home type configuration what happens there?
That’s fascinating then. Not the most familiar with either since they can’t be used by me, I’ve had no vision for years and couldn’t read print and was determined that at age 3. The characters had to be super super large so I started off with screen readers and braille at a very young age.
Coming at this from at/it type perspective.
Have you tried magnifier, windows built in magnifier on your laptop under ease of use? need to reread your post. And what was the result the same or better? I’d call some tech support lines and see if they have any idea or hopefully someone could help.
P.s. I reread your post and you apparently didn’t mention it.
slinkymoonlight [OP]2 points1y ago
This is the next step. Husband has said factory reset it & start again using windows settings. I need ro be able to change the colours on Web pages, from Grocery stores to whatever else. No idea if this can be done. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
Thanks.
TechnicalPragmatist2 points1y ago
Yeah, not a problem the color on sight thing sounds very sight by site unless you can change it in general maybe or something like that.
thebrightworker2 points1y ago
did you need supernova to be able to see the cleartype font settings?
if you can see that without supernova then maybe you can just get away with a global screen scaling instead?
if so right click desktop, display settings:
scale & layout:
if youre lucky it'll go up to like 300% but depends on monitor.
beyond that i have no idea how to solve your issue but maybe it'll be enough to get you by temporarily while you sort it out.
slinkymoonlight [OP]2 points1y ago
Hello, Yes the first thing we did was install a trial so that I could see what I was doing.
The tablet, is shared to a 55 inch TV, I can't see black on white, so it's quite a process of coloured stick on glasses/ darkmode. Hence the gift of this fantastic laptop to try & make Grocery shopping easier.
thebrightworker1 points1y ago
ah i see, thanks for clarifying, sorry that i can't really think of anything else. besides maybe the built in magnifier on windows itself.
slinkymoonlight [OP]2 points1y ago
Well I was researching assistive software & discovered free NVAD Wow. I changed my "theme" on the laptop to a high contrast one, tweaked the colours, put on the laptop magnifier & I have to say it's better than supernova. I downloaded the speech add on & think I can probably make do with this instead of paying out. Increasing the display font in the Samsung settings means it magnifies clearer, happy days. I'm struggling on chrome where the display is big & there's no way to scroll, so not sure how to fix that. But positive steps.
thebrightworker1 points1y ago
sounds awesome, well done on getting a decently usable system running. nice.
i dont know about chrome though.
reganadler1 points1y ago
Hey so I also just had this problem on a new expensive gaming laptop I bought solely to use for magnifier and screen reader purposes. I’m so annoyed after spending so much money! I also have the s7 plus as well and it’s very easy to see, so it’s extra annoying. I’m not sure what to do yet in terms of returning, but I did manage to make it a little more usable.
The problem seems to be related to DPI (dots per inch) and scaling. Weirdly, my MacBook Pro I used for work always looked crystal clear when I magnified on the retina screen, but it was horrendously grainy on every display I connected it to even when not magnified, and even 1.2x zoom made everything unreadable.
In case you are still trying to make your new setup work, here are some things that might help:
1. Search windows (push the windows key and type) for “scaling” and then turn off the option for windows to try to make things look clearer. It doesn’t work well for magnifier needs in my experience.
2. Change the resolution of your screen to be smaller, like 800x600, which will zoom everything in from the bottom up and might make things clearer. Also try to make things natively use larger font sizes whenever possible, such as ctrl plus and default font sizes in Firefox or chrome or Discord. I don’t know if that works for Edge because I hate it and downloaded Firefox immediately.
3. Try turning on the font smoothing option in dolphin but make sure to turn off the image smoothing.
4. Try Zoomtext or Fusion and Windows magnifier and narrator to see if one of those is better. Zoomtext has an affordable yearly license in the US and there are also cracked versions out there if you’re in a real pinch and don’t have any other options. I do okay a lot of times with Windows Magnifier, Narrator, and a program called PowerToys that gives me the mouse crosshairs and finds my mouse for me when I shake it or double tap ctrl.
5. Try one of the options for using the Samsung tablet as a second display and use that for your magnifying display. I haven’t tried this yet but it might be a good option. You can also potentially take your laptop and an HDMI cord to Best Buy or micro center and explaining your dilemma to a worker there. They can probably help you connect to and test different TVs and monitors to see if there’s one that might look clearer with your laptop.
6. If you know what you’re doing, you can hack your registry to change the default system font to one that looks better when zoomed in.
7. Also only if you know what you’re doing, but you can try downloading an accessible Linux distribution like coconut to a flash drive and booting into it to see if it works better.
I also had some luck lowering my refresh rate from 144hz to 60hz and telling the system to always run Supernova in performance graphics mode, but you may not have those options on your laptop.
Also, you might have better luck trying different screensharing methods. Like if you’re using Wi-Fi casting, try using an HDMI cord and vice versa. You can also try messing with the graphics and display options for the TV, both in your Windows settings and the TV menu. Try different resolutions, refresh options, color settings, etc. if you have a spare cheap monitor or know someone who does, try plugging into that and seeing what works.
I know what a pain this is, so don’t feel like you have to do everything on the list. I just also know how bad it feels to spend all this money and end up with a computer that looks like dog poop. These are just some options that I tried or considered trying in the same situation. I hope it helps!
slinkymoonlight [OP]1 points1y ago
Glad to k ow it's not just me. The windows help center for accessibility is poop too. You can only live chat! So can't send them images as dar as I can see & the weird fonts in Edge is intermittent. I'm using nvda with a speech add on & the Samsung laptop contrast theme & I'm oing okay. I decided not to buy supernova full version. Though I do really miss the bold font smoothing. Thanks for the help & tips. Hope yours improves too. Isn't it ridiculous how brilliant the s7 plus tablets are for font & even downloaded bold fonts then the 2k laptop is utter crap!
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