Millisecond Forums

Text/Stimuli sizes across different monitors

https://forums.millisecond.com/Topic21651.aspx

By Psych_Josh - 5/22/2017

Hello Inquisit Forum,

I have a quick query regarding the subject in question. Essentially, although I have no issue using Inquisit for lab-based tasks, I am having an issue using Inquisit for online studies due to the fact text/stimuli sizes/displacements appear across various monitor sizes, and appears to be more impacted by those using smaller monitors. For example, on the screen with which I use to write the script the stimuli/text appear to be properly placed. However, on smaller screens, text often disappears off screen, or stimuli appear in less-than desirable locations relative to each other (for example, overlapping). This may not be the correct question to arrive at a solution, but I was wondering if there was a way to scale stimuli/text relative to monitor sizes so that I am able to run online experiments without encountering these errors.

Many thanks in advance,
Josh
By Dave - 5/22/2017

Psych_Josh - Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Hello Inquisit Forum,

I have a quick query regarding the subject in question. Essentially, although I have no issue using Inquisit for lab-based tasks, I am having an issue using Inquisit for online studies due to the fact text/stimuli sizes/displacements appear across various monitor sizes, and appears to be more impacted by those using smaller monitors. For example, on the screen with which I use to write the script the stimuli/text appear to be properly placed. However, on smaller screens, text often disappears off screen, or stimuli appear in less-than desirable locations relative to each other (for example, overlapping). This may not be the correct question to arrive at a solution, but I was wondering if there was a way to scale stimuli/text relative to monitor sizes so that I am able to run online experiments without encountering these errors.

Many thanks in advance,
Josh

> I was wondering if there was a way to scale stimuli/text relative to monitor sizes so that I am able to run online experiments without encountering these errors.

Yes, there is. You should generally express all positions and sizes (including, crucially, font sizes) in percentages. In addition, you'll want to make use of the <defaults> element's /canvasaspectratio attribute to achieve consistent results across varying monitor dimensions.

//limit canvas to a 4:3 aspect ratio across all monitors
<defaults>
/ canvasaspectratio = (4,3)
/ canvassize = (100%, 100%)
...
</defaults>

//specify all positions and sizes in percentages
<text example>
/ items = ("The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.")
/ txbgcolor = grey
/ position = (50%, 25%)
/ size = (40%, 10%)
/ fontstyle = ("Arial", 3%)
...
</text>

Virtually all of the scripts in the library adhere to these principles and can serve as examples.

Hope this helps.
By Psych_Josh - 5/23/2017

Thanks Dave, hopefully that sorts out the issue.

Many thanks,
Josh