--scale scales a rasterized frame-buffer-bitmap to the display-resolution, leading to massive quality losses
Problem
xrandr --scale leads to a quality-loss (generally blurry)
(a)xrandr --output eDP-1 --mode 1920x1080 --scale .5
and (b)xrandr --output eDP-1 --mode 960x540 --scale 1
result in the same Screenshot, however (a) should be a 1920x1080 image and (b) should only use a quarter of the screen (to avoid blurriness).
It is correct that (a) and (b) show the same amount of content and the same relative Windowsizes/Font-sizes, however (a) should have more pixels for the same content, however they end up in the same Screenshot.
actual result
xrandr --scale scales a frame-buffer-bitmap to the display-resolution
expected result
xrandr --scale should scale first and then create raster-image identical to the physical display-resolution, as done by gnome-control-center>Settings>Display>Scale
or by gnome-tweaks>Fonts>Scaling Factor
.
However gnome-control-center and gnome-tweaks are global for all monitors, and can't compensate different dpi on Monitors.
Examples
xrandr --output eDP-1 --mode 1920x1080 --scale 1 --filter nearest
xrandr --output eDP-1 --mode 1920x1080 --scale .5 --filter nearest
xrandr --output eDP-1 --mode 960x540 --scale 1 --filter nearest
xrandr --output eDP-1 --mode 960x540 --scale 0.5 --filter nearest