Font settings for the IDE menus

[ledsyn]

A while ago after an update of the IDE (or the system), the menu font was bold and with extra row spacing:

Where's this setting stored?

IDE
Version: 2.3.6
Date: 2025-04-09T11:24:04.835Z
CLI Version: 1.2.0

Linux
Operating System: Manjaro Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.12.0
Qt Version: 6.9.0
Kernel Version: 6.6.85-2-MANJARO (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11

[sonofcy]

I have never seen a setting for that so it is probably one of those inherited from the system.

[ledsyn]

If all programs was like this, but it's just the IDE that exhibit these menus.

[sonofcy]

I think this is the menu that is bothering you

and this may be the settings for the font

I used this command to display the fonts

[ledsyn]

@sonofcy

I think this is the menu that is bothering you

All menus looks like that.

@sonofcy

and this may be the settings for the font

I fiddled with those but to no use.

[sonofcy]

Perhaps just submit a change/feature request to Arduino. They may come back with 'it's already done and here is how'

[ledsyn]

Well if anything this is a bug, either in the IDE or in my system, or, something I did wrong. But I'd like to know if I can troubleshoot this, like @ptillisch do with Windows installations, Powershell and so on. So now that I got your @ptillisch (double) attention, is there any way to start the IDE in linux and get verbose output?

[ptillisch]

@ledsyn

is there any way to start the IDE in linux and get verbose output?

You can see the logs that are generated by Arduino IDE if you start it from a terminal:

1. Close all Arduino IDE windows if the IDE is already running.
2. Open a command line terminal in the folder that contains the AppImage file.
3. Type the following command in the terminal window:

   ./arduino-ide_<version>_Linux_64bit.AppImage
   

   (where <version> is the Arduino IDE version number)
4. Press the Enter key.

You will now see logs printed to the terminal window as Arduino IDE starts up. They will continue to be produced as you use Arduino IDE.

[ledsyn]

I thought I did but apparently did not

Anyway, I can't find anything obvious there, so I did what I should've done long before. I moved the two folders .arduinoIDE and .arduino15 out of my home dir and restarted IDE, but that gave the same font size and style.

I had some older IDE laying around, and up to 2.3.4 this is what it look like:

So from 2.3.5 the font size changed +. It's not a setting in the two .arduino* folders since there's no difference with or without them in =<2.3.4.

Any idea where this setting is lurking?

[ptillisch]

It will be a system-wide setting, not something specific to Arduino IDE. Unfortunately I don't have any experience with KDE, but for distros like Ubuntu that use the GNOME desktop, you can configure it via GSettings:

It is a good idea to start by checking the current setting:

$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface font-name

'Ubuntu 11'

This information will be useful in case you only want to change the font size, while continuing to use the same font. It will also make it easy for you to revert changes to the settings in case you decide you liked it better as it was originally.

If, for example, I wanted to increase the font size to 14 and continue to use the "Ubuntu" font, I would run this command:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface font-name "Ubuntu 14"

[vadegdadeg]

Hello! Please tell me how to increase the font in the IDE menu?

IDE 2.3.6
Windows 10 22H2

[ptillisch]

Hi @vadegdadeg. You can change the size by the procedure described here:

Change the size of text in Windows - Microsoft Support

[vadegdadeg]

This is not what I need! This is to change the settings of the entire system, and I only need to be in Arduino IDE.

[ptillisch]

You can control the scale of the entire Arduino IDE interface by starting it with a --force-device-scale-factor flag.

For example, if you want the scale to be 2X the normal size, you would use the --force-device-scale-factor=2 flag.

This is different from Arduino IDE's Edit > Increase Font Size / Decrease Font Size feature because it scales up the menu bar in addition to the rest of the user interface. This means you can use both features together to increase the menu font size by first using --force-device-scale-factor to scale up the size of the entire UI, then Decrease Font Size to scale down the size of all the UI except the menu.

Try this:

1. Select File > Quit from the Arduino IDE menus if it is running.
   All Arduino IDE windows will close.
2. Start Windows "File Explorer".
3. Open the Arduino IDE installation folder.
   ⓘ The default installation location is at one of the following paths:

   • C:\Program Files\Arduino IDE
     

   • C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Arduino IDE
     

     (where <username> is your Windows username)
     If looking for it with your file manager or command line, note that the AppData folder is hidden by default. On Windows "File Explorer", you can make it visible by opening the "View" menu, then checking the box next to "☐ Hidden items".
4. In the folder listing of the Arduino IDE installation folder, hold the Shift key while clicking the right hand button on the mouse.
   A context menu will open.
5. Select "Open PowerShell window here" from the menu.
   Windows PowerShell will now open with the current directory set to the Arduino IDE installation folder.
6. Type the following command in the PowerShell window:

   & ".\Arduino IDE" --force-device-scale-factor=<factor>
   

7. Replace the <factor> placeholder in the command line with the factor value by which you want to increase the scale of the menu text.
8. Press the Enter key.
9. Wait for Arduino IDE to finish starting.
10. Select File > Preferences... (or Arduino IDE > Settings... for macOS users) from the Arduino IDE menus.
    The "Preferences" dialog will open.
11. Check the box next to "Interface scale: ☐ Automatic" in the "Preferences" dialog.
    ⓘ This setting causes the Edit > Increase Font Size / Decrease Font Size feature to scale the UI instead of only changing the font size.
12. Click the "OK" button.
    The "Preferences" dialog will close.
13. Press the Ctrl+- keyboard shortcut repeatedly until the scale of the rest of the Arduino IDE user interface is according to your preferences.
    ⓘ This is the keyboard shortcut for Decrease Font Size.

[ptillisch]

In my instructions, I recommended starting Arduino IDE from the PowerShell terminal because this is an easy way to experiment with adding flags to the invocation. However, if you decide you want to use this as a permanent solution, you would likely find it inconvenient to start Arduino IDE this way every time.

The solution will be to create a Windows shortcut to start Arduino IDE (or modify the existing shortcut if you already use one) and configure the properties of the shortcut so that it starts Arduino IDE with this flag:

1. Right click on the Windows shortcut.
   A context menu will open.
2. Select "Properties" from the menu.
   A dialog will open.
3. Add the --force-device-scale-factor flag, with your chosen scale factor to the end of the command in the "Target" field of the dialog.
   For example, if you wanted to increase the scale of the menu by a factor of 1.5, the "Target" field value would look something like this:

   "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Arduino IDE\Arduino IDE" --force-device-scale-factor=1.5
   

4. Click the "OK" button in the dialog.
   The dialog will close.

Now when you start Arduino IDE using that Windows shortcut, it will be scaled up by the chosen factor.

[vadegdadeg]

Thank you so much for your help!
Setting --force-device-scale-factor=1.2 helped me!
Adjusted the scale of the editor and the font size in the editor and now generally candy! Thank you again for your help!

[ptillisch]

You are welcome. I'm glad if I was able to be of assistance.

Regards, Per