Why do some apps install with micro-fonts?

[Will547]

I recently installed Stacer and Inkscape. The fonts are microscopic? I just opened VirtualBox and the fonts there are too small also. If I do an online search the usual solution is to download GnomeTweaks. Isn't there an "inhouse" fix? I tried adjusting the font size and scaling in Settings to no avail. All my other apps and seem to be "normally" sized? I'm using Mint 20.1 Cinnamon. Suggestions greatfully appreciated!!!

[xenopeek]

I don't have a solution but can say VirtualBox and Stacer are Qt programs. Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce are Gtk based. You can run Qt programs on Gtk based desktop environments and vice versa and you should not normally spot that (it should look native) but there can be some papercuts when running programs developed with a different user interface library. Especially with things like fonts and HiDPI (if you have a display with very high resolution) the settings for your desktop environment might not be picked up by those kinds of programs. Or the programs in question might not have support for HiDPI built in yet.

Inkscape is a Gtk program so is a bit odd one out in this mix. I would suspect you have a HiDPI display because of that. Inkscape HiDPI support is work in progress I think, so it doesn't scale fonts for displays with very high resolutions (very small pixel size). I don't use Inkscape except for creating the odd text label but you can probably increase the size of the font in Inkscape by starting it with command GDK_DPI_SCALE=2 inkscape. Try that out from the terminal. You can edit the menu entry to do that by default if it gives you desired result. You can increase the size of icons through Inkspace preferences.

Similarly there are some environment variables you can use with Qt programs to force them to use HiDPI. This covers some of it: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/HiDPI#Qt_5. For example run VirtualBox as QT_SCALE_FACTOR=2 virtualbox to make it use 2x larger text.

[Flemur]

I recently installed Stacer and Inkscape. The fonts are microscopic?

Install and run qt5ct to set qt fonts and other GUI stuff. Edit: inkscape does NOT use qt?

Also you can also change the font size on all or a single program; for me ocenaudio's fonts were too small when other qt programs loooked OK; they're made bigger like this:
$ cat bin/Ocenaudio

Code: Select all

QT_FONT_DPI=128 ocenaudio "$*"

You can also set QT_FONT_DPI in your ~/.profile to change all qt font sizes:

Code: Select all

export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct  # you might need to set this too...
export QT_FONT_DPI=96  # 96 = the default?

[Will547]

I appreciate your response Flemur. I did worry about a response that might cause all my fonts to be effected. I went to Synaptic to download qt5ct and found that I had qt settings downloaded already. I opened qt5 settings to find that it is yet another instance of tiny fonts.The top bar on my screen says Qt5 Configuration Tool in the same size font as shown on this Linux Forum page? Anything to do with operating the configuration tool is all but invisible, even holding a magnifying glass up to the screen? I can't figure out why everything/all my apps were "normal" prior to the recent downloads,, with the exception of the qt5 that I didn't know I had.

Thanks again for your response, Will

[Will547]

xenopeek you are right on the money. Thank you for your assistance

[absque fenestris]

I use Inkscape in the form of a more up-to-date AppImage, because I didn't like various things in the older 0.9x version. I didn't have to change the font size, the icon sizes are adapted to the monitor.

It looks like this for me:




Key data: LMDE 4, 14" laptop monitor, 3000 x 2000 pix in Hi-DPI mode 200% - via display settings.