UI Scaling

[petr0m]

Since only the main menu font is scaling with the windows font scaling a lot of menu fonts end up very small on high-dpi monitors.

Suggestion: Add an UI Scaling slider to the user interface menu where we can adjust the UI scale to suit our monitor settings.

[Pšenda]

https://www.google.com/search?q=UI+Scaling+site%3Aforum.affinity.serif.com

 

 

[Granddaddy]

In addition to
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/123596-ui-font-and-icon-size-is-really-very-very-tooooooooooo-~~-small/

See also 
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/116061-fon-size-in-the-gui/

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/74923-changing-affinity-photo-user-interface-font-size-in-windows-10/

We wait impatiently through the years for APhoto to catch up to its competition in so many ways, yet we put up with it for a variety of reasons.

 

[petr0m]

Thanks for the linked threads.

I would be fine with the argumentation that its handeled on OS level if the fonts would all be responding to the OS text scaling settings. But they arent. Menues and docker font sizes are not scaling relative to the OS scaling settings. Furthermore global increased os windows scaling does only properly support big jumps of 125%, 150% or 200% if you want to have different scalings on multiple different sized monitors. Where then everything ends up simply to big. 

[Granddaddy]

11 hours ago, petr0m said:

Menues and docker font sizes are not scaling relative to the OS scaling settings.

This could mean the font attributes for some features of the UI are hard coded in the Affinity software. If much of APhoto is hard coded, then it will be difficult to adapt it to changing conditions (such as very high resolution monitors and use of multiple monitors).  That could explain why so many bugs persist for so many years.

Quality and flexibility have to be built into software from the initial design. Software cannot be criticized into quality.

It is always dangerous for a company to release software before it is ready for prime time. Hence the battles between developers and marketers.

Bad first impressions and bad reputations endure long after a problem is fixed, if it is ever fixed. Once people turn away from a familiar software product to a new software product, it takes a compelling reason to entice them back to the older product,  just as it took a compelling reason for users to try the new software product after years of using some older, more established software. These forums are filled with examples of this. I saw smaller, highly successful, software companies disappear virtually overnight when they foolishly gave their users a compelling reason to try a different product. 

You cannot throw out software as an experiment and see how people react. When released prematurely (a business/marketing decision), software gets a bad reputation faster than programmers can make up for the deficiencies. Living down a bad reputation is very difficult. 

[Pšenda]

3 hours ago, Granddaddy said:

This could mean the font attributes for some features of the UI are hard coded in the Affinity software. If much of APhoto is hard coded, then it will be difficult to adapt it to changing conditions (such as very high resolution monitors and use of multiple monitors).  That could explain why so many bugs persist for so many years.

Quality and flexibility have to be built into software from the initial design. Software cannot be criticized into quality.

It is always dangerous for a company to release software before it is ready for prime time. Hence the battles between developers and marketers.

Bad first impressions and bad reputations endure long after a problem is fixed, if it is ever fixed. Once people turn away from a familiar software product to a new software product, it takes a compelling reason to entice them back to the older product,  just as it took a compelling reason for users to try the new software product after years of using some older, more established software. These forums are filled with examples of this. I saw smaller, highly successful, software companies disappear virtually overnight when they foolishly gave their users a compelling reason to try a different product. 

You cannot throw out software as an experiment and see how people react. When released prematurely (a business/marketing decision), software gets a bad reputation faster than programmers can make up for the deficiencies. Living down a bad reputation is very difficult. 

Although I don't know how your post relates to menu scaling, but in Win 10 I have no problem (100/125/150%).

 

[Granddaddy]

@Pšenda is referring to the Windows 10 Settings/System/Display/Scale and Layout slider. This option scales the entire screen. With the Advanced Scaling Settings/Custom Scaling option you can set any scaling between 100% - 500%, but Windows says this custom scaling is not recommended.

In this thread, I was referring to the Windows 10 Settings/Ease-of-Access/Display/Make Text Bigger slider introduced in Windows 10 version 1809 sometime late in 2018 to early 2019 depending on when Windows updated your computer. 

For a description of what font elements in APhoto can be adjusted using the Make Text Bigger slider, see my post at
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/74923-changing-affinity-photo-user-interface-font-size-in-windows-10/&do=findComment&comment=430003

There are numerous discussions on the web about the problems associated with scaling the entire display, which is why Win 10 version 1809 introduced Making Text Bigger while leaving the display itself scaled at 100% .

Of course, Making Text Bigger cannot help on those elements of the APhoto UI that do not use the system font, nor can it help with bitmapped tool icons.

At least some of APhoto's competitors understand the usability issues arising with high definition monitors and users' varying degrees of visual acuity and varying working conditions. Some allow users to choose alternative sizes for bitmapped icons, as APhoto did recently for its layer icons. Applications like the Vivaldi web browser allow independent scaling of both the UI and the working content window. We can hope more developers catch on to these trends that broaden the possible user base for a product.

 

[missellen]

The interface is impossibly small for me. Please provide an option, a solution, a work-around, or just make the icons bigger next version out. I'm on a mac and I just can't freaking see the icons.