High DPI settings on windows? Increase tools font size?

[klodoma]

Is there a way to increase the text size on Windows High DPI Screens? I use a 4K monitor and I would like to have the right panel somehow bigger. 

FYI: I have increased HIGH DPI settings on windows.

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @klodoma

There is currently no way for Windows users to increase the size of the UI text, other than any changes that occur when when setting the ‘global’ text size in Windows. 

This is something which has been requested quite a few times.

[klodoma]

Thanks for letting me know. 
Not great, but good to know. I'll have to adjust my glasses then 

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.

This isn’t only an issue for Windows users, some Mac ‘retina screen’ users have the same problem.

[Granddaddy]

Welcome to the Affinity forums @klodoma

Your question about getting a readable UI with Affinity products arises again and again. You might find some help by reading my most recent post on the topic. It includes links to some history and some partial solutions.

 

 

[wes jones]

I just purchased V2 and I simply cannot read anything on my 4K screen. I tried changing the global UI size in Windows so I can at least use Affinity Photo, but now every other app I use is rendered unusable because of the HUGE font size. Unacceptable.

[Martin Bernbrich]

I just purchased Photo 2 some weeks ago and I am not happy with the font sizes, too. When I need a quick change on photos I rather use paint.net - it is faster loading and I can read all the text in the GUI without pinching my eyes. I hoped for v2.2 but unfortunately nothing changed.

@TEAM: The High DPI support is needed urgently, otherwise it is just so inconvenient on 4K screens. So please get this feature in the next update.
And do it independent from Windows scale or text settings.

Let the user decide how large she/he wants so have the fonts.

Just to let you know: the fonts are 2mm in size !!!

Here I have added the screenshot with only a couple of examples marked:

Kind Regards

     Martin :-) 

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Martin Bernbrich said:

Let the user decide how large she/he wants so have the fonts.

There has to be a limit on how large the UI text can be, otherwise in many places it could not all fit in the panels or dialogs. In fact, on Macs if you set UI Font Size to "Large" in Settings/Preferences > User Interface there are a few places where the UI text may be truncated.

That said, it would be great if we could have more choices on Macs than just "Default" & "Large," including at least one that is larger than the current large choice.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

 

[Martin Bernbrich]

Hey! 

Very well expressed, Lacerto. I am a blender user, too - beating this blender UI is very hard.

But I am sure that the AP2 users would really appreciate an update that comes half close to that.

So: Serif Developers, get it into your next sprint, please.

With hope

Kind Regards

     Martin :-) 

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, Martin Bernbrich said:

next sprint,

Guess what …

... and quite a few more.

[Pšenda]

15 hours ago, Martin Bernbrich said:

And do it independent from Windows scale or text settings.

It's been said here many times - but I don't think there's any reason to set the UI of each app separately. There is simply a system setting for that, which solves the settings of all applications. Especially with regard to connecting and disconnecting external monitors, which would otherwise lead to constant setting of all applications.

 

15 hours ago, Martin Bernbrich said:

Just to let you know: the fonts are 2mm in size !!!

If you use an even less suitable Scale factor setting, it could be even smaller and worse. I'm surprised you're comfortable with it like this with all other apps - I couldn't even use a calculator with this setup.

[R C-R]

9 hours ago, lacerto said:

There are naturally practical limits where increased text size results in bad usability...

Yes, all I am saying is it isn't as simple as letting users set the UI font size to whatever they want. If that was possible, even with the alternatives you suggest, there are some things where usability would be degraded significantly. For instance, imagine if like in Blender at some settings you could only see a few characters of a layer name unless you made the panel so wide that there was much less space available for the document.

[Martin Bernbrich]

Hello everybody

and thanks for your comments.
In general I would agree that it makes no sense that all apps have their own settings for the font sizing - but only in case that it really works.

Let's see how Photo 2 does:
1) I am using a text size of 150%.
In front the Settings (Einstellungen) window, Photo 2 in the background has too small fonts size

 

2) Going to 100%
Photo 2 shows the same small font size.

The font always shows with 8 pixels in height.

 

Anyhow, I can't read it well. I like to know if our concerns have been understood.

Kind Regards,
    Martin :-) 

 

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Martin Bernbrich said:

I like to know if our concerns have been understood.

I don't think the developers really understand why so many of us find it so difficult to use various parts of the UI. It isn't just the UI font size that is the problem. It is also the low contrast between so many items like a toolbar item & its background that makes it difficult to tell if it is enabled or not, & dark grey on black text in the Dark UI or the light grey on white in the Light UI that makes the text that much harder to read.

It is almost as if they are afraid of making these things easily seen because they think they would be distractions. It makes no sense to me.

[Old Bruce]

16 minutes ago, R C-R said:

It is also the low contrast between so many items like a toolbar item & its background that makes it difficult to tell if it is enabled or not,

My favourite example still hasn't been fixed. Alter a preset and if you have the light interface then there is no indication that you can overwrite or make a new preset.

This is just unacceptable.

 

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

My favourite example still hasn't been fixed. Alter a preset and if you have the light interface then there is no indication that you can overwrite or make a new preset.

If I look really really really carefully at that on my Mac, I can just barely see that those two buttons are there but are rendered in such a light grey that they might as well be invisible. To verify that they really are there & not just my eyes playing tricks on me, I took a screenshot of that area, opened it in Preview, zoomed way in, & took a second screenshot:

I really do not understand why this usability issue has never been addressed since day 1 of the first version of AD for Mac was released long ago, or why they thought the lame additions like adding text & UI contrast settings somehow did more than make these issues slightly less problematic. 

[Granddaddy]

Let's enlarge on R C-R's comment that he cannot understand why the Affinity usability issue has never been addressed since day 1.

In a phrase popularized by a prominent, contemporary, social commentator, "it is beyond comprehension" that such a serious, even debilitating, deficiency has never been addressed despite assurances given seven years ago that such issues would be addressed in future versions. 

The user interface has indeed been altered over the years, but always in ways that make usability worse, as I and many others pointed out with the release of Affinity 2 in November 2022. Among many other threads in these forums at the time, see for instance
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/173835-what-ergonomic-design-principles-call-for-minimal-contrast-and-reduced-readability-in-user-interfaces/

In 40 years of desktop computing beginning with PC-DOS and continuing through Windows 3.0 with excursions into the Power Mac world and today in Windows 10 with over 100 applications installed, I have never encountered such an unreadable, unpleasant user interface as that foisted on us by Affinity products. It's enough to make me doubt my sanity for still using the software. I remain sane enough to warn others away from Affinity software unless they have some really compelling reason to try it.

[Granddaddy]

lacerto's video of the Blender scalable interface is impressive. Sadly, history suggests that this kind of interface scaling is well beyond the capabilities of Affinity developers, just as its purposes seem beyond the comprehension of Affinity interface designers.

But surely Affinity could implement simpler approaches to readability and usability that have been standard in Affinity Photo's competition for the past few years. Corel PaintShop Pro has provided discrete choices of text size, icon size, and other User Interface settings right on the main menu bar so they can be easily adjusted at any time while working on a project.

Or why not just implement a user interface with readable text and icons similar to that on all other programs I use. Affinity stands out as the only interface that chooses to use minuscule text and icons. I am still using Office 2000 that was designed originally for 12" monitors or thereabouts. It is perfectly legible on my 24" monitors with Windows accessibility scaling set to 100%. Only Affinity is dysfunctional and unpleasant to use.

Some text in the Affinity UI uses the Windows system font and so is scalable with Windows Ease of Access settings without scaling the entire Windows interface. Other text elements seem to be hard coded into the Affinity applications.

[R C-R]

Personally, at this point I would not like to see Serif spending much time & resources trying to implement anything like Blender's scalable interface when so many other things need attention.

But for the life of me I cannot see why they could without too much time & effort just boost the contrast throughout the UI, which would go a long way in making it much easier to use.

[luvlylavnder]

I just purchased Affinity Designer 2 and I like it so far other than the fact that it is very hard to see, I hope that Affinity will address the issue. I would like to purchase the photo and publisher as well but I don't think I will until there is a way to make the UI text larger. This is very strange seeing that most programs have this ability.