Any interest in this improvement to some fonts in DAS?

[smp 9]

I have just starting using DAS Trader Pro and am really surprised by the use of an old not scalable type font (MS Sans Serif) in most of the dialogs and some parts of many windows where the font cannot always be reconfigured.  This old font does not work with Windows ClearType and so looks jagged and also does not scale as well as TrueType/OpenType fonts.

Having used many trading platforms I certainly prefer good functionality over a pretty user interface, but as a software developer I know the changes to update the fonts are very minor,  as is another change to enable Windows visual styles which improves the look of Windows controls (edits, check boxes, buttons etc).   

Hence for my own use I have made a couple of changes to work around this and wonder if anyone else is interested. To show the difference here is part of the configuration dialog before and after the font change and also enabling visual styles:

           

This is at standard 100% scaling in Windows but even with a high DPI (4K) monitor using a higher scaling there is still a difference (one my own 4K monitors I only use 100% or 125%)

I did make an enhancement request to DAS support but never heard anything back even to acknowledge receipt.  

If anyone is interested in making the same changes (at their own risk of course) then let me know and I'll create some instructions and post them here.  The changes for the font issue is a Windows registry change and the visual styles for controls is either a Windows registry change or editing the executable (the former is recommended). 

[Alastair 111]

Pls do. As a ex-developer I am going to setup a thread where ALL DAS edits can be discussed and conceptualized b4 being sent to DAS Support.  We have some very good resources in this community, crack/sharp developers.

Look forward to ur contribution. instructions.  All contributions to improve/enhance DAS or any other software are welcomed.  We pay every month for the software, and we need to reduce the stress of trading with easy tools.

Look out for the thread in next couple of days.

Edited April 23, 2020 by Alastair Mowatt

[onlyjava 12]

On 4/23/2020 at 9:07 AM, smp said:

If anyone is interested in making the same changes (at their own risk of course) then let me know and I'll create some instructions and post them here.  The changes for the font issue is a Windows registry change and the visual styles for controls is either a Windows registry change or editing the executable (the former is recommended). 

@smp Yes - please post the instructions.

My das windows suddenly got messed up - the font sizes changed on the buttons (level 2) and the chart price labels. Would not revert to its original sizes even after restoring from a whole das backup.

I am guessing that this must be related to the font info DAS writes to the windows registry.

You are right - DAS could use better fonts and visual styles - the application is stuck in the Windows 95 look and feel..

Appreciate your help. Thank you.

[onlyjava 12]

On 4/23/2020 at 9:07 AM, smp said:

I have just starting using DAS Trader Pro and am really surprised by the use of an old not scalable type font (MS Sans Serif) in most of the dialogs and some parts of many windows where the font cannot always be reconfigured.  This old font does not work with Windows ClearType and so looks jagged and also does not scale as well as TrueType/OpenType fonts.

Having used many trading platforms I certainly prefer good functionality over a pretty user interface, but as a software developer I know the changes to update the fonts are very minor,  as is another change to enable Windows visual styles which improves the look of Windows controls (edits, check boxes, buttons etc).   

Hence for my own use I have made a couple of changes to work around this and wonder if anyone else is interested. To show the difference here is part of the configuration dialog before and after the font change and also enabling visual styles:

           

This is at standard 100% scaling in Windows but even with a high DPI (4K) monitor using a higher scaling there is still a difference (one my own 4K monitors I only use 100% or 125%)

I did make an enhancement request to DAS support but never heard anything back even to acknowledge receipt.  

If anyone is interested in making the same changes (at their own risk of course) then let me know and I'll create some instructions and post them here.  The changes for the font issue is a Windows registry change and the visual styles for controls is either a Windows registry change or editing the executable (the former is recommended). 

 

Hey @smp

Please post the instructions to update the DAS fonts - Thank you

[Kons 4]

Hi

Do you know how can I fix the font issue below ? I'm using same external monitor with 2 different devices and one displays fine when another is not looking good. 

 

[Alastair 111]

@KyleK29 Pls invite @smp to talk abt FONTS and how to optimize for easier reading.

DAS taking too long on his request.  We need to use the BBT community experts to make the trading experience more enjoyable.

Hopefully @smpwill reach out to @KyleK29 so we have a talk during our Tech Session today OR could you add to agenda today and swing it from ur perspective.

[smp 9]

Apologies for leaving this thread hanging.

With higher DPI monitors the issue of blocky bitmap fonts it less noticeable (but still not ideal) which could explain why some monitors look better than others. Windows DPI scaling has a hand here depending on how its configured.

However for those that want to apply the change I mentioned, the change is simple and works system wide, so will make any applications using MS San Serif render with a scalable modern font.  I've never experienced an issue from doing for various applications for many years,  although theoretically an application could do some odd font metric calculations and display oddly. As a developer myself I can say that would be very odd thing to do as fonts vary with systems anyway but as always take care when editing the Windows registry and do this at your own risk.

The change is specifying a font substitution using the mechanism built into Windows.   I've attached a zip with two '.reg' registry files (that can be opened in NotePad or other editor to review the change) that will add or remove the change if required by double clicking the file required to run.  Note: I could not attach a zip named file directly so added a '.txt' extension that needs to be removed.

If you prefer not to run the files, this change can be done by running regedit.exe and then navigating to: 

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes

Right click either the  'FontSubtitutes' item in the tree or empty space in the list on the right and  select 'New' and then 'String value'. Name the value 'MS Sans Serif' and set the value to 'Microsoft Sans Serif'.  You can choose another font such as Tahoma.

After that it is necessary log out of Windows and log back in for the change to take effect.

Some more major Windows upgrades can reset these substitutes so the change may need to be reapplied.

With reference to the other change for making DAS use modern windows style visual control rendering, this requires editing the DAS Trader executable file or another system wide change.  I've found one area of DAS (Trade Signal feature) where this causes an issue so I wouldn't recommend at present.  I tested this mainly to see if DAS would have to do much work for the visual style change before I submitted the suggestion to them, and it appears not. 

RegFilesToAddOrRemoveFontFix.zip.txt

Edited July 26, 2021 by smp
Add note about Windows upgrades

[Kons 4]

@smp It works! thank you so much, now my montage is usable again 🙂  

[Alastair 111]

Thks, looking forward to this, will implement at end-of-day. appreciated

[bknight29 0]

Wow. Thank you so much @smp! I just purchased a brand new Lenovo Legion 5 laptop with Windows 10 and when I installed DAS the size of the menus was to big to fit my screen (see image 1 below) and the montage font size was too big so I would have to increase the width and give up real estate (see image 2 below). I contacted DAS technical support and after some back and forth, they basically told me it was a problem with my computer and the couldn't help me! I was so bummed.

Then I came across this post and with your quick and easy fix, everything works perfectly! I am so grateful to you and the knowledge that we have here in the BBT community. The fact that we can fix issues with DAS that they don't know how to help people with is amazing! The last two images show my issues completely fixed!

Thanks again!

 

[cordawg 0]

@smp thank you for the post!  I've applied your fix to resolve some text issues on a new download I just did on a different desktop.  I'm also having issues with the chart resolutions on the new desktop.  Tried all of the DPI change fixes but haven't been able to find anything that works properly.  If you have any suggestions is would be greatly appreciated.  

Before: candles and MAs nice and smooth. 

After: Resolution is poor, grainy and you can really tell on daily levels and moving averages and when you zoom out a bit

[smp 9]

@cordawg

As Peter said, this looks to be a resolution/scaling issue.

You need to check the native resolution of the monitor in question, what resolution it is set to use in Windows and the Windows text DPI scaling setting for it.  Also the Windows compatibility DPI scaling settings for DAS specifically which shouldn't be either of the system options.