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Steam No Longer Ugly Thanks To High DPI Support Update

Steam finally took off its glasses and let its hair down. Now I want to ask it out to the prom.

Chris Jarrard

March 22, 2018 11:15 AM

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For Steam and the folks over at Valve, the wheels of progress have been known to move at a speed similar to that of a sloth. PC gamers began graduating to high-resolution displays many years ago, but the Steam application for Windows failed to accommodate those users. Dots per inch (DPI) is a measurement of spatial dot density for a display. The higher the DPI, the more individual pixels a monitor will have in the span of an inch. High DPI displays allow for increased visual quality, but require software support to make proper use of the additional resolution. After years of begging from the community, Valve has included High DPI support in a new update to the Steam client for Windows.

Anyone using 1440p or 4K monitors may have had need to increase the DPI scaling factor to make text and other objects easier to read. Most applications with proper DPI scaling support can accommodate this change and will remain visually sharp and appealing to the eye. For years, Steam did not support this scaling and would look very rough on displays with very high resolutions. The image below shows what the Steam client looked like on high-resolution display before this update.

What had become an annoyance for high resolution users has now been alleviated and Steam joins other applications in the 21st century. The March 21 Steam client update also includes fixes for scaling on Linux desktops and enhanced PS4 controller support. The full patch notes notes are available on the Steam news feed.

Chris Jarrard

Contributing Tech Editor

Chris Jarrard likes playing games, crankin' tunes, and looking for fights on obscure online message boards. He understands that breakfast food is the only true food. Don't @ him.