How to change DPI, not just for fonts (make everything bigger)

jancellor · 2013-01-09 21:06:44

Hello

I would like to make everything bigger. Fonts, panels, menus, buttons, text boxes, title bars, etc.

Is this possible? If not, that would mean that the size of, say, an OK button in Leafpad is specified as a certain number of physical pixels, right?

If it is possible, should this be an X server setting or an Xfce one? If it is X, can you suggest something anyway, or point me at the right forum?

I don't know if this is the right approach but I have tried "xrandr --dpi 120 -s 1366x768" but this does not do anything (including no output in the terminal). Doing "xrandr -s 1024x768" (ie without using "--dpi 120") does successfully do something.

Help! Surely there is a solution. Xfce is unusable without the ability to "zoom" the whole desktop.

I am running Xubuntu 12.10 in a Windows 7 VirtualBox with a 1366x768 13-inch screen.

(I already posted here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2102980, is that bad? I wasn't sure if it was Xfce specific.)

Many thanks

James

ToZ · 2013-01-10 01:04:43

How about Settings Manager -> Appearance -> Fonts Tab -> DPI setting?

jancellor · 2013-01-10 21:31:54

ToZ wrote:

How about Settings Manager -> Appearance -> Fonts Tab -> DPI setting?

No, this just changes the font size.

Actually, if the text in, say, a button happens to too big to fit into the button, the button expands so that it fits. But this is very different from the scaling the whole UI.

wilker · 2013-01-11 02:38:31

jancellor wrote:

ToZ wrote:
How about Settings Manager -> Appearance -> Fonts Tab -> DPI setting?
No, this just changes the font size.
Actually, if the text in, say, a button happens to too big to fit into the button, the button expands so that it fits. But this is very different from the scaling the whole UI.

hi,

what result exactly do you expect? the text to not fit in the buttons? apparently it scales the windows here, except for the window decoration size:

regards

jancellor · 2013-01-11 19:54:33

wilker wrote:

what result exactly do you expect? the text to not fit in the buttons? apparently it scales the windows here, except for the window decoration size:

No, it does not scale the window. Do you not notice the small checkboxes, icons, and otherwise badly proportioned layout in your screenshot?

The text gets bigger, and as a side effect the buttons get bigger. But even this is only if you make the font so big that it would otherwise not fit in the button. And if you make the font smaller, the button (height) does not change.

For a font DPI setting, this is exactly what I expect.

jancellor · 2013-01-11 20:15:26

There seem to be more people asking the same question for GNOME. I can't link to any definitive resource, but everything I have found says:

No, it is not possible to set the DPI and hence scale everything up or down.

I'm guessing it is the same for Xfce. Hope this helps anyone who comes looking.

Nick · 2013-01-11 22:25:26

lower your screen resolution

Magnus · 2013-01-12 01:25:10

There should be a way to scale everything up as retina displays become more prominent, though.

wilker · 2013-01-12 11:01:34

Magnus wrote:

There should be a way to scale everything up as retina displays become more prominent, though.

feel free to develop that, xfce is open source

narmod · 2013-01-13 01:17:18

I've been wondering how this is going to work in the near future, when higher resolutions are more and more common place, like 4K or that crazy 8K from Sharp. I think that the *freedesktop* people needs to come up with an standard first (if there isn't one already), before Desktop Environments start implementing anything. Something similar to how Android manages vastly disparate screen sizes and pixel densities, or something similar.

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#1 2013-01-09 21:06:44

How to change DPI, not just for fonts (make everything bigger)

#2 2013-01-10 01:04:43

Re: How to change DPI, not just for fonts (make everything bigger)

#3 2013-01-10 21:31:54

Re: How to change DPI, not just for fonts (make everything bigger)

#4 2013-01-11 02:38:31

Re: How to change DPI, not just for fonts (make everything bigger)

#5 2013-01-11 19:54:33

Re: How to change DPI, not just for fonts (make everything bigger)

#6 2013-01-11 20:15:26

Re: How to change DPI, not just for fonts (make everything bigger)

#7 2013-01-11 22:25:26

Re: How to change DPI, not just for fonts (make everything bigger)

#8 2013-01-12 01:25:10

Re: How to change DPI, not just for fonts (make everything bigger)

#9 2013-01-12 11:01:34

Re: How to change DPI, not just for fonts (make everything bigger)

#10 2013-01-13 01:17:18

Re: How to change DPI, not just for fonts (make everything bigger)

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