Storyline for high-dpi monitors on Windows 8.1

Jan 12, 2014

I have one of those laptops with very high resolution displays.  On windows 8.1, we typically want the elements to scale up to 125% or 150% to use the new scaling features of Windows 8.1 properly, otherwise at 1080P resolution you get very very small buttons and fonts all over the operating system.

I understand that Storyline requires 96DPI to be set (100%) which is a system wide change requiring everything else on my desktop to be small just to use Storyline.  I've tried setting the "compatibilty mode" or "ignore high dPI" settings but storyline just seems to ignore that.

Has anyone at articulate looked into a possible workaround to windows 8.1 on retina displays?  With more and more monitors being extremely dense in pixels, I can't fathom changing my entire desktop resolution each and every time i need to use Storyline as all other OS windows become very tiny.

174 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Oliver,

I don't know that it's been brought up to our team before, but you may want to submit a feature request to ensure that they're aware of the set up you'd like to have and how it impacts your course development. I know that setting your DPI to another other than 96 can cause problems within the application, but I'm not a programmer, so I don't understand the design or need behind it. 

oliver O

There is no simple solution that won't interrupt your workflow.

What I have to do now everytime i use storyline is scale down my resolution so that things "fit" within storyline and keep my text scaling at 100% (96 DPI).  This ruins everything else on my desktop, but at least I can build storyline files normally.

Keep in mind as well, that if you enable text scaling, it will build your files incorrectly as well, so storyline is essentially non-functional under DPI settings higher than 100%.

Natalie Sikes

Hello. I'm looking to buy a new laptop that will have 1920x1080 resolution. I assume this is the same as 1080P? Can you tell me the size of your laptop and the resolution setting you scaled down to in order to get Storyline to work properly? I understand that dpi can vary with screen size, so I want to make sure I get the formula right.

Also, do you have any Adobe products on your computer? If so, did you need to scale down the resolution for those programs as well?

Juliet Keaton

I have the exact same issue as described by other users above, having recently purchased a laptop with very HD resolution display. Other software companies, including Adobe have now accommodated for VHD, UHD and HD with ability to use their software at high res with DPI greater than 96. I am going to submit a feature request and would highly recommend others having the same issue do so too. This problem will be encountered by more people as they upgrade their hardware. I believe Articulate is a responsive company and will, with requests for need, deliver a solution for this issue.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Jamie,

My apologies if I was not clear, or if I misunderstood.

On a high resolution monitor, which it seems you have, the Storyline interface may look very small as it needs to be viewed at the 96 DPI setting to function properly. This is something we've shared with our team in regards to support for higher resolution monitors. If the display is too small for you to read, you may need to look at changing your machine's horizontal resolution to 1920 pixels or lower. 

I've shared this thread with our QA team so that they continue to see how many users are being impacted by this behavior. 

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Dana!

Articulate Storyline requires Microsoft Windows to be configured with 96 DPI (dots per inch). If Windows is using a different DPI setting, you may experience erratic behavior, such as:
 
*  Elements of the application are misplaced or distorted.
*  Objects are misplaced or distorted when previewed or published.
*  Zoomed images don't work as expected.
*  Font sizes are incorrect after using the translation features.
 
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Robbie,

You may find that user interface elements in Articulate Storyline are small and difficult to read on high resolution monitors—generally, monitors that display more than 2,000 pixels in width. We're working to improve performance on HD monitors. In the meantime, you may need to reduce your screen resolution while working in Storyline. In regards to how this will work with Storyline 2 and Windows 10 we don't have any information to share about particular operating systems that are not yet released. 

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