UI Generally Too Small (Windows), No Scale Option?

[SunsetBlvd]

Hello forum folks, hoping I can get some assistance with this issue and that I'm just missing something obvious.

I'm working on a laptop (windows) and find that the majority of the UI (text, icons, etc.) is too small. Some of the fonts scale correctly to my system preferences, but most are microscopic. I have googled and it says there should be a UI font scale option or icon scale option under the User Interfaces section of the preferences menu, but I cannot see it (see attached - screenshot in designer v2).

If I can't fix this, it's really going to limit my ability to work with any of the affinity v2 apps on this device.

TL;DR: How can I scale up the UI for v2 apps on windows?

Any help appreciated.

[Ron P.]

2 hours ago, SunsetBlvd said:

I have googled and it says there should be a UI font scale option or icon scale option under the User Interfaces section of the preferences menu, but I cannot see it (see attached - screenshot in designer v2).

Welcome to the forums

I think the should be statement is from a lot of posts from users desiring it, not that it is actually available. As you can see there is no such setting or adjustment within the Affinity apps. Some users have changed the setting in Windows>System>Display.

[SunsetBlvd]

10 hours ago, Ron P. said:

As you can see there is no such setting or adjustment within the Affinity apps. Some users have changed the setting in Windows>System>Display.

So it seems I'm not missing something after all. This is disappointing. I already have my scaling turned up quite a bit (and system text too, not shown in screenshot) and if it gets any bigger, the rest of my general system UI will be comically large. So it seems that this is just a feature lacking in this software suite, which sucks. I may just have to not use this software suite on my laptop. Hopefully something like this can be added in a future update.

Thanks for the reply. Hoping this post can help others.

[Granddaddy]

Teeny-tiny icons and fonts have been complained about for several years with no response from Affinity. The issue remains unaddressed in  Affinity 2. 

The Settings/Ease of Access/Make text bigger setting avoids the undesirable effects of scaling your entire display, but it only changes some text elements, not the icons and not text elements that are hard-coded by Affinity and that don't use the Windows system fonts. It works for me on my 24" 1920x1200 Dell monitors. I would never be able to use Affinity on a 13" laptop monitor and maybe not even on a 15" monitor.

Larger monitors are not necessarily a solution. You can find many posts in these forums from people who have purchased larger (e.g. 32") high resolution monitors and find Affinity almost unusable. The Teeny-Tiny UI problem only gets worse with age. If you stick with it, eventually you memorize where things are and what they indicate even though you can't read them comfortably and unambiguously.

See my older posts for further details:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/125603-ui-scaling/&do=findComment&comment=689223

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/74923-changing-affinity-photo-user-interface-font-size-in-windows-10/&do=findComment&comment=430003

More recent background information at

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/148867-is-there-a-way-to-make-the-ui-fonts-larger/&do=findComment&comment=831673

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/148844-the-size-off-the-menu-and-the-icons/&do=findComment&comment=831009

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/135393-scale-panel-to-bigger-size/&do=findComment&comment=748118

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/135052-tool-icon-size—need-to-enlarge/&do=findComment&comment=745313

Good luck.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, Granddaddy said:

Teeny-tiny icons and fonts have been complained about for several years with no response from Affinity.

More than several years, the complaints about this started with the first release version well over five years ago.

[henryanthony]

I recently got a new pair of glasses tuned to optimize my vision at 24" which I determined to be the typical distance from my eyes to my display. Makes all the difference.

My laptop display is 17" which I find too small so I also have a 22" display. Even so, with my new glass eyes I could work off the laptop if required to do so.

If the software developers don't provide decent accessibility I have to adapt and work around it. 

[JWolfe]

I have the same issues. I can not read the menu text or icons on my High-Resolution monitor. No matter how I attempt to correct the situation, it does not resolve. My eyesight suffers when using this application. My vision is blurred from eye-strain. At this point, I am ready to throw my hands up in the air and return to Photoshop. To say I am extremely disappointed in Affinity is an understatement. I can work on a lower-resolution monitor, but that defeats the purpose of a high-resolution monitor when creating graphic art. Totally unacceptable. This has been going on for YEARS. Unbelievable.

[Catshill]

Try using your reading glasses and move your head closer to the screen when needed.

[SunsetBlvd]

20 hours ago, Catshill said:

Try using your reading glasses and move your head closer to the screen when needed.

When the iPhone 4 launched, it had connectivity issues with the antenna due to a design oversight(/regretful choice?), and Steve Jobs tried to tell people "no, the phone doesn't have a problem, you're all just holding it wrong".

For whatever reason, this very basic feature (bigger text) seems to not be a priority for Affinity. I haven't seen any evidence that they plan to address this issue (would love to be wrong though).

[Catshill]

3 hours ago, SunsetBlvd said:

When the iPhone 4 launched, it had connectivity issues with the antenna due to a design oversight(/regretful choice?), and Steve Jobs tried to tell people "no, the phone doesn't have a problem, you're all just holding it wrong".

For whatever reason, this very basic feature (bigger text) seems to not be a priority for Affinity. I haven't seen any evidence that they plan to address this issue (would love to be wrong though).

It’s was not meant in a derogatory way. I genuinely work that way as using different strength reading glasses means I can see a lot more of my project and also focus in on specific items as required.

[David Simmer]

This is also a problem on Mac. You can go into system settings (display) and increase size of everything (scaled), which I have to do so I can see anything well and it works on everything else. However, when done the Affinity UI screen goes out of site at the bottom and you can't go down and shorten the screen.  This is even the case if you set the display to the larger scale, shorten the Affinity UI screen and then go back and enlarge it. So, I have to go back and forth with system settings when using the Affinity Apps. That is rough on my old eyes.

[Marnied]

Scaling the UI text and icons for all 3 Affinity Apps was available in the later versions of Affinity v.1. I just discovered with Affinity V.2 it was taken away. I think that was an awful decision. Serif, do you not care about making your products as visually accessible as possible? Computer monitors increase by the day it seems. With more visual space to work on, your consumers should have the option to increase UI size as we once did.  

You are now promoting Affinity 2.5 beta. I am currently a beta tester. I am asking that you please reinstate the ability to increase UI size.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Marnied said:

Scaling the UI text and icons for all 3 Affinity Apps was available in the later versions of Affinity v.1. I just discovered with Affinity V.2 it was taken away.

This has not been removed from V.2 on Macs. For instance, this is from Preferences on my Mac in AD V.2:

Depending on your macOS version, "Preferences" may now be named "Settings" but either way, the panel should be available from the app-named menu just to the right of the Apple menu icon.

[anto]

6 hours ago, R C-R said:

This has not been removed from V.2 on Macs

This has been removed from V2 on Windows - 2.4.2 and 2.5.0

[R C-R]

9 hours ago, anto said:

This has been removed from V2 on Windows - 2.4.2 and 2.5.0

As I understand it, that option was never available on Windows in version 1 either, so it has not been removed in V2 since it was never there to begin with.

[Granddaddy]

R C_R is correct that there never was a UI Font Size option in APhoto for Windows in any earlier version.

See my post last year for a summary concerning UI readability issues in Windows 
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/171054-accessibility-customising-the-ui-font-size/&do=findComment&comment=1075020

Windows Ease of Access settings are the best you can do to improve readability of some text elements in the APhoto UI

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/171054-accessibility-customising-the-ui-font-size/&do=findComment&comment=1075020

My post from five years ago described in detail which APhoto UI text elements can be resized using Windows Settings

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/74923-changing-affinity-photo-user-interface-font-size-in-windows-10/&do=findComment&comment=430003

As you will see from links provided in my older posts, the APhoto UI became significantly worse in Affinity 2 applications. Given that history, there seems little hope for improvement given that Affinity does not consider readability to be a problem. Either that or it lacks the technical expertise and user experience specialists who could do anything about it.

[peter]

Have a look back at this link and see how it was done in the past...