UI font size

[MrBeep]

Hi, I'm on 32 inch display with UHD resolution and the interface texts are very tiny. The text size is 8px and it should be a bit bigger, at last 10-12px. It's really hard to read. It would be great if there was an option to scale interface like it is in Photoshop or even better like in Blender.
The attached file shows Affinity fonts on left and Adobe on the right.

Edited November 27, 2023 by MrBeep

[Affinityconfusesme]

Hi @MrBeep just search in the forum font size issues....

[MrBeep]

Hi @tzvi20, looks like there is no solution. This is a summary of a 3 pages long topic 
 

Quote

I don't really care about arguments in favour or against, same font size or not, etc.
The fact is, I would very much like to use Affinity as an alternative to the overpriced Photoshop with its compulsory subscription. 
But unfortunately, with Affinity I can only read the menu texts, menu elements or help texts with a magnifying glass in my third hand at best.
As long as this is the case, it is impossible for me to use Affinity. After all, I'm not a masochist. 
With that, I'll end the discussion here for my part.

At least as long as Affinity doesn't treat users like customers.

I really don't understand this why this is not solved issue. Do most of Affinity client work on HD displays?

Edited November 27, 2023 by MrBeep

[Pšenda]

11 hours ago, MrBeep said:

I really don't understand this why this is not solved issue. Do most of Affinity client work on HD displays?

Just use the Scale factor in the OS.

 

[MrBeep]

1 hour ago, Pšenda said:

Just use the Scale factor in the OS.

 

I don't use scaling in OS. I work in full resolution 100%.

Edited November 28, 2023 by MrBeep

[george++]

On 11/28/2023 at 11:44 AM, MrBeep said:

I don't use scaling in OS. I work in full resolution 100%.

Me too!

I use a DELL U3821DW monitor and I need to keep the maximum resolution in order to have as much as more space as I can.

Unfortunately, every time I run any app of the Affinity suite I have to switch in lower resolution since the user interface sucks in 3840x1600 

[MrBeep]

Hello developers! Any comments?

[GarryP]

Serif usually don’t comment on possible changes or timescales for possible changes.

If something gets changed then it’s usually mentioned in the beta forums https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/32-beta-software-forums/ and that’s when we users get to know about things prior to the commercial updates. 

As you already know, this is something which has been requested many times and Serif are aware of those requests.
All we users can do is wait and see if anything happens.

[george++]

@GarryP: it sounds logic, the more users ask for something the more the need is understood by the developers

[GarryP]

I believe that the developers very much understand the requirement that some users have to be able to change the UI font size – some of the developers would probably like to be able to do it themselves if they use higher-resolution screens.

But the knowledge of a greater need for something doesn’t necessarily equate to that thing being given a higher priority, perhaps because of other internal/external pressures that we either know about or don’t know about.

Basically, Serif do their thing how they do it and some stuff gets done and other stuff has to wait.

As I said above:

23 minutes ago, GarryP said:

All we users can do is wait and see if anything happens.

And that’s just how it is.

[Bit Disappointed]

Grant me a Euro for every 'I have absolutely no idea about what's happening internally at Serif, but I believe that...' post ordinary users have received from other ordinary users here, and I could buy a luxury yacht with a crew.

And let's just repeat for new readers: Developers develop code and architecture, while project managers and other decision-makers make decisions (ideally with usability specialists, which is not the case at Serif Software) about what and when to develop. The best role for developers here is to advise on the most feasible implementation order and what is technically possible or impossible. Had there been a leadership decision years ago to switch to a scalable interface instead of the strangely microscopic one we now have in v2.0, it might have been implemented by now. Possibly at the expense of new features, and therefore postponed. A classic scenario; milking an architecture to its last.

In that case, it would have been a strategic decision, implemented in the products by developers, with marketing and documentation following suit. Instead, another peculiar strategic decision was made to change the interface to the dark one we have now, with contrast issues, and still an interface that cannot adapt to current and upcoming screen sizes.

I don't understand why so many refer to developers as almost the sole factor in software development; it's such an oversimplified notion of a company, I can hardly fathom it. I have no idea why leadership at Serif makes both sound and obviously flawed decisions, and why glaring deficiencies are not addressed for years, but don't imagine for a moment that there's a circle of all-knowing, gracious developers with a ready explanation and solutions at hand for future updates.

Decisions are made by the head; not the tail!

[Gripsholm Lion]

This is not a criticism and please don't take it as such; but your view of other people's choice of words reads like an instance of knowledge fallacy. Not everyone knows what you, I, or someone else knows, but it's normal for us all to forget that from time to time. Perhaps a lot of people don't know the name for the people tasked with making UX decisions; or that such roles exist and are a distinct part of development (I would argue that UX designers are still developers in the same way as I used to be a web accessibility developer); or perhaps some people just want a shorthand for the cohort who work at a software company while they get their point across. I hope you won't mind if I refer to all such related people as developers because, believe it or not, I do quite like brevity. 🙂

[Bit Disappointed]

I understand what you are suggesting, but I have gradually come to the conclusion that it is not a fallacy. I do not perceive understanding or nuances in this or other forums when people throw out the reference to 'developers'.

I don't know how you worked and where, but with us, the usability experts are by no means developers, they don't come anywhere close to code, coding or participating in development sprints, they are not even part of the company that develops software, they work across projects and products with ownership of the user interface and knowledge thereof. Consultants. Web accessibility is implemented by our IT developers, but here too, it's specialized employees from a specialized unit who tell them what needs to change and why. Members of this unit obviously knows more about how code works in the end product, but only advise on where in the code there are problems. They do not participate in the development either. Our product is thoroughly tested by accessibility companies, who again understand code, but only advise.

Our management, on the other hand, has decided at a strategic level that we must be best in class in terms of accessibility, and then we all move on that order. So here it is by no means developers who can be referred to. My work is obviously larger and more comprehensive than Serif's, but the boundaries between roles and responsibilities are exactly the same. Things often go wrong in small companies, when roles and responsibilities merge together on a few employees, and it gets even worse when they believe they fully understand what pure specialists understand. They would hardly want to be operated on the brain by a combined brain-, intestine-, heel surgeon and speech therapist. 🙂