Changing font size with keyboard

[Leijoona]

Hi!

When I activate the font size input, and use arrows on my keyboard to change the font size, it changes in 0,01 increments (or 0,1 increments with shift). Where can I change this? It used to work fine in the past, but for a while this has been driving me nuts.

Thanks!

[MikeTO]

Hi, go to Settings > Shortcuts. Select Text from the second list on the page. Then set the shortcuts for Size > Bigger, Smaller, Precise Bigger, Precise Smaller.

Cheers

[Leijoona]

Thanks, MikeTO, but this doesn't fix the very small increments. My shortcuts work fine, it's just that I would like to change the font size by full points, not 0,01 pt at a time.

[Oufti]

You can change the number of decimals for each unit in the Settings > User Interface.

Normally, arrows on the keyboard should follow your choice. 

 

But though there are sometimes strange things happening… I already posted a bug report about that:

 

Now, I'm with points as document units and it's not really easier to understand and describe what's going on (on APub 2.5.6). 

At least, I can say now that behaviour between shortcuts ⌘< ⌘> and keys △▽ is NOT the same. It's late for me to investigate more tonight… 

 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Oufti said:

You can change the number of decimals for each unit in the Settings > User Interface.

Normally, arrows on the keyboard should follow your choice. 

AFAIK, these settings only affect how many DP's are displayed in the UI but not the increments used with keyboard shortcuts or anything else.

[Oufti]

13 hours ago, R C-R said:

AFAIK, these settings only affect how many DP's are displayed in the UI but not the increments used with keyboard shortcuts or anything else.

When I test it, set with points as units, it changes (*) when I use the top-bottom or left-right arrows of my MBP keyboard — but not very well with the ⌘> or ⌘< (command + greater or smaller keys) shortcuts, it produces inconsistent changes.

(*) To be precise:

• If I set these settings with 4 decimals for points, it uses increments of 0.001 pt when pressing the arrow keys
  (If there is already another fractional unit set in the field, the 1st press seems to jump to the last used increment, then it uses the chosen increment × 10).
• 3 decimals —> 0.01
• 2 decimals —> 0.1
• 0 or 1 decimal —> 1

Thus choosing 0 or 1 decimal for points in the UI settings seems to me a valuable way to achieve what the OP asked for:

17 hours ago, Leijoona said:

I would like to change the font size by full points, not 0,01 pt at a time.

@Leijoona I guess it's now set with 3 decimal units?

 

[P.S. Added video]

Not visible: I press the top-bottom arrow keys to change point size and use cmd-Z to reset the style (check also the Text Styles and History panels to see what happens) before changing settings.

 

[Leijoona]

Thank you @Oufti! I thought this setting only effected how the decimals are shown, but turns out it also affects the way they are changed using shortcuts. Anyway, problem solved, thank you!

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Leijoona said:

I thought this setting only effected how the decimals are shown, but turns out it also affects the way they are changed using shortcuts.

That's what I thought too but apparently I was mistaken.

[Oufti]

On 1/7/2025 at 6:49 PM, R C-R said:

That's what I thought too but apparently I was mistaken.

Well, not always… The fact that it's is only working under certain circonstances (e. g. with arrow keys but not other shortcuts (on Mac at least) — and not always first time but, sometimes, after a first unsuccessful attempt) makes difficult to believe that. 

(And even after many experiments, it's difficult to describe exactly what's happening in every circumstance when using keyboard to manage point size. I'll try to update my previous bug report (linked above) but every other report should be valuable…  )

[Oufti]

11 hours ago, Oufti said:

 

On 1/6/2025 at 9:12 PM, Leijoona said:

I would like to change the font size by full points, not 0,01 pt at a time.

@Leijoona I guess it's now set with 3 decimal units?

@Leijoona Can you remember if this guess was right? That should confirm my observations about how it works…. 

[Oufti]

6 hours ago, R C-R said:

That's what I thought too but apparently I was mistaken.

Did you try it after me (and what were then your observations)? Or did you just believe me on words?

(This question is just to help Serif staff, if they read us, and to enlighten me of any difference or convergence between our possible experiences…)

[R C-R]

9 minutes ago, Oufti said:

Did you try it after me (and what were then your observations)? Or did you just believe me on words?

I tried it with DP for points set to 0, to 1 & to 3. I only checked in the Character panel for setting the font size & with the up/down & left/right cursor keys but it worked as you described for that.

[Leijoona]

10 hours ago, Oufti said:

@Leijoona Can you remember if this guess was right? That should confirm my observations about how it works…. 

Yes, points were set to 3 decimals 👍

[carl123]

18 hours ago, Leijoona said:

I thought this setting only effected how the decimals are shown, but turns out it also affects the way they are changed using shortcuts. Anyway, problem solved, thank you!

It's not like that in Windows

Using the up/down arrow keys changes the value in 1pt steps
Using CTRL+up/down arrow keys changes the value in 0.1pt steps
Using Shift+up/down arrow keys changes the value in 10pt steps

Which is how it is documented to work

Changing the number of decimals that are displayed makes no difference to the above

So, is it a bug on Macs or Windows?