A Delphi Developers Guide for 4K Displays

For the last 20 years, Windows desktop applications faced a relatively unchanged display environment. Sure, displays grew in size and the predominant aspect ratio changed from 4:3 to 16:9. A pixel, however, was still a pixel and a logical pixel corresponded to a physical dot on the screen. This was possible, because the physical display size grew at about the same rate as the resolutions increased. Compare your first 14" CRT monitor with its 1024 x 768 pixel resolution to a typical modern consumer display with a HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels at 24 inch. The physical size of each pixel - or the distance between the dots on the screen - is approximately the same. At least is the difference not huge. With modern Ultra-HD displays ("4K displays") at sizes of 28" or smaller, this game has changed forever. Simply because no human being is sharp-sighted enough to comfortably read text at the size of a pinhead. Texts, headings, button captions have to be enlarged and with larger text, everything in the user interface needs to be scaled. When Apple introduced the first mobile devices with retina display, the iOS developer community was prepared for the shift. Besides, iOS and OS/X as well as Android have significantly better operating system support for scaled applications. Windows has not, unfortunately. It leaves it to the individual developer and the development tool to prepare for high resolutions. And the change is as huge as the new display resolutions, which are here to stay, because they are getting more common with every day. This guide intends to help you getting your Windows applications ready for 4K. It will explain the challenge and tell you how to master it. Happy 4K coding! :-)