Client with ODD Display Settings

[beeready]

I hope you all will humor me in reading a non-flash question

I've spent a lot of time and energy on dealing with a client and a business partner only to just now find out that the reason a site is not displaying correctly on the client's computer is because he has manually changed his display settings to 150 dpi.

The client is a friend of my business partner's so I'm not charging anyone for a 'change order' or anything, I am all but positive I can fix the site so it will look okay in these settings and obviously from now on *I* will be aware of this possibility but just to put my mind at ease, is this something I should have known? I asked the client all the normal 'user requirements' questions about browser versions, resolutions, etc. and he never said ANYTHING about the dpi and is still insisting that it is a COMMON setting.

What do you guys say? Is it a common setting? Should I have been aware that he might have changed his dpi settings?

Thanks!

Barrie

[gerbick]

usually, screen settings are 72 or 96. 150... he should change back.

[JabezStone]

As far as display settings go, 96 is considered "normal" by Microsoft, and is what their operating system ships at. Also, according to Microsoft, 120dpi is "large". So this guy has gone even beyond the "abnormal" settings according to Microsoft.

Bottom line is that this is only one user who is most likely a very minute portion of your target audience... don't waste your time developing to his resolution.

Stay with the determined and agreed to specs of your project, and don't spend your valuable time trying to cater to this tiny fraction of a user base unless the client will pay for it. Seriously.

Your job now is to convince the client that his and your focus should be on the largest segment of his potential user base, and not to cater to every sub-nook-and-cranny user that's out there.... or else your job would NEVER be done.

[beeready]

Thanks guys

This was really starting to shake my faith in my abilities <g>

The problem is that this guy is telling me that a significant number of his users (engineers) are running with these settings so I do feel somewhat obligated to make the site work for him and thus for them as well. Well, that plus there is no way I'm getting paid if it won't work on his computer <g>

I have changed the settings on my computer so that I can see what he 'sees' but it just gives me a headache leading me to believe that MS isn't just randomly setting stuff for 96 dpi, it really is a better display setting.

barrie