Fonts too small

[Gabriel Landini]

Hi I wonder if anybody has encountered a solution for the small appearance of
IJ when using high resolution screens. ImageJ on a 16 inches monitor with
3840x2160 pixels is impossible to read (literally one needs a magnifying glass
to read the text!).  I am seeing this in Kubuntu, with NVidia drivers.

I am aware of the Font option, however setting sizes larger than 16 (still too
small) the Window and Help menu entries do not fit in the fixed size of the
rest of the application anymore and are not shown. I guess this is because the
icons/buttons have a fixed size and the main application frame is fixed?
The new Appearance Text Scale works to some degree with the submenus, but not
with the application menu or the output sent to text windows. One can enlarge
the text window fonts, but I cannot find a way to store this as a default
either.

All other applications follow the system font settings. The only other
application with small fonts was Firefox, but it could be solved with the GTK
font size settings.

Is there any way of scaling both the application buttons and the fonts other
than setting a low screen resolution?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Gabriel

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Curtis Rueden]

Hi Gabriel,

Which version of Java do you use? Did you try Java 11?

See also
https://forum.image.sc/t/how-to-increase-the-gui-font-size/552

Regards,
Curtis


On Mon, Jan 14, 2019, 17:09 Gabriel Landini <[hidden email] wrote:

> Hi I wonder if anybody has encountered a solution for the small appearance
> of
> IJ when using high resolution screens. ImageJ on a 16 inches monitor with
> 3840x2160 pixels is impossible to read (literally one needs a magnifying
> glass
> to read the text!).  I am seeing this in Kubuntu, with NVidia drivers.
>
> I am aware of the Font option, however setting sizes larger than 16 (still
> too
> small) the Window and Help menu entries do not fit in the fixed size of
> the
> rest of the application anymore and are not shown. I guess this is because
> the
> icons/buttons have a fixed size and the main application frame is fixed?
> The new Appearance Text Scale works to some degree with the submenus, but
> not
> with the application menu or the output sent to text windows. One can
> enlarge
> the text window fonts, but I cannot find a way to store this as a default
> either.
>
> All other applications follow the system font settings. The only other
> application with small fonts was Firefox, but it could be solved with the
> GTK
> font size settings.
>
> Is there any way of scaling both the application buttons and the fonts
> other
> than setting a low screen resolution?
>
> Thanks for any suggestions.
>
> Gabriel
>
> --
> ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html
>

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Michael Schmid]

Hi Gabriel,

have you tried the latest daily build?

Very recently, Wayne has added a scale factor for the font in
GenericDialogs (almost all ImageJ dialogs), under
Edit>Options>Appearance. I think that it won't affect File Open/Save
dialogs, which are provided by the operating system.
Also the contents of Tables is not scaled (yet?), and any user dialogs
that are not GenericDialogs won't be scaled.


Michael
________________________________________________________________
On 15.01.19 00:08, Gabriel Landini wrote:

> Hi I wonder if anybody has encountered a solution for the small appearance of
> IJ when using high resolution screens. ImageJ on a 16 inches monitor with
> 3840x2160 pixels is impossible to read (literally one needs a magnifying glass
> to read the text!).  I am seeing this in Kubuntu, with NVidia drivers.
>
> I am aware of the Font option, however setting sizes larger than 16 (still too
> small) the Window and Help menu entries do not fit in the fixed size of the
> rest of the application anymore and are not shown. I guess this is because the
> icons/buttons have a fixed size and the main application frame is fixed?
> The new Appearance Text Scale works to some degree with the submenus, but not
> with the application menu or the output sent to text windows. One can enlarge
> the text window fonts, but I cannot find a way to store this as a default
> either.
>
> All other applications follow the system font settings. The only other
> application with small fonts was Firefox, but it could be solved with the GTK
> font size settings.
>
> Is there any way of scaling both the application buttons and the fonts other
> than setting a low screen resolution?
>
> Thanks for any suggestions.
>
> Gabriel
>
> --
> ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html
>

--
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[Gabriel Landini]

On Tuesday, 15 January 2019 09:15:51 GMT [hidden email] wrote:
> have you tried the latest daily build?

Curtis and Michael, thanks for the replies.

@Michael,
Yes. Increasing the factor to 1.8 makes the menus just readable, but the
Windows and Help entries do not fit in the width of the application window.
Maybe if the application frame was resizable (I think it used to be so in the
past) one could at least manually resize it to see the other main menu
entries.

As you point out, calling the command finder with CTRL+L results in fonts are
too large for the table of commands and is  difficult to read.

Using Menu Font Size above 24 points or so does not seem to make a difference.

@Curtis,
Yes I am trying Java 11 and it is the same story as Java 6 and Java 8.

Reading from http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/263 on HiFPI on Linux:
Java2D and AWT use the XLib library, which does not support HiDPI. As a
result, current Java applications can look 2 to 3 times too small on HiDPI
displays on Linux.

Is that it then? :-(

Cheers

Gabriel

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ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Michael Schmid]

Hi Gabriel,

concerning the main ImageJ Panel:
I think here it is the font size in points and not the Scale factor from
the Appearance options that applies.
As a workaround, you can extend the size of the main ImageJ panel by
loading more Tools in your StartupMacros.


Michael
________________________________________________________________
On 15.01.19 11:09, Gabriel Landini wrote:

> On Tuesday, 15 January 2019 09:15:51 GMT [hidden email] wrote:
>> have you tried the latest daily build?
>
> Curtis and Michael, thanks for the replies.
>
> @Michael,
> Yes. Increasing the factor to 1.8 makes the menus just readable, but the
> Windows and Help entries do not fit in the width of the application window.
> Maybe if the application frame was resizable (I think it used to be so in the
> past) one could at least manually resize it to see the other main menu
> entries.
>
> As you point out, calling the command finder with CTRL+L results in fonts are
> too large for the table of commands and is  difficult to read.
>
> Using Menu Font Size above 24 points or so does not seem to make a difference.
>
> @Curtis,
> Yes I am trying Java 11 and it is the same story as Java 6 and Java 8.
>
> Reading from http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/263 on HiFPI on Linux:
> Java2D and AWT use the XLib library, which does not support HiDPI. As a
> result, current Java applications can look 2 to 3 times too small on HiDPI
> displays on Linux.
>
> Is that it then? :-(
>
> Cheers
>
> Gabriel
>
> --
> ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html
>

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Gabriel Landini]

On Tuesday, 15 January 2019 12:53:57 GMT you wrote:
> concerning the main ImageJ Panel:
> I think here it is the font size in points and not the Scale factor from
> the Appearance options that applies.

Hi Michael.
Yes, that is right and beyond 24 font size it does not seem to make a
difference.

> As a workaround, you can extend the size of the main ImageJ panel by
> loading more Tools in your StartupMacros.

Will try that. Unfortunately the icons are too small anyway, so I would have
to add a ton of icons tools. Perhaps making the main window expandable again
would allow resizing it to taste, but maybe there is a good reason to have it
fixed.

I found a window manager option to force a window to a given size, but then
all windows get resized to that size.
At the moment it appears that reducing the screen resolution is the only thing
that makes IJ usable again. A pity because this kind of defeats the purpose of
having a finer screen resolutions.

Regards

Gabriel

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Curtis Rueden]

Hi Gabriel,

> Perhaps making the main window expandable again would allow resizing
> it to taste, but maybe there is a good reason to have it fixed.

Interesting. I tested this (Xubuntu with Xfce in a VM, plain ImageJ 1.52a),
and found the window could not be resized; the window moves instead of
resizing when grabbing an edge. Whereas with Fiji (with ImageJ 2.0.0-rc-69
/ 1.52i) I am able to resize by grabbing the window edges. Launching that
same Fiji installation with the "--ij1" option also results in an ImageJ
window that cannot be resized for me.

The following JavaScript code will resize the main window directly:

  importClass(Packages.ij.IJ)
  importClass(Packages.java.awt.Dimension)
  IJ.getInstance().setSize(new Dimension(850, 350))

You can run it with Plugins > New > Javascript, or the Script Editor, or
Script Interpreter, or whatever code execution method you like.

I am not able to reproduce your HiDPI issue on my Ubuntu Linux VM, but that
might be due to VirtualBox's display handling—I don't think my Linux
desktop considers itself to be running in a HiDPI environment within
VirtualBox.

Regards,
Curtis

--
Curtis Rueden
LOCI software architect - https://loci.wisc.edu/software
ImageJ2 lead, Fiji maintainer - https://imagej.net/User:Rueden
Have you tried the Image.sc Forum? https://forum.image.sc/



On Tue, Jan 15, 2019 at 8:35 AM Gabriel Landini <[hidden email]>
wrote:

> On Tuesday, 15 January 2019 12:53:57 GMT you wrote:
> > concerning the main ImageJ Panel:
> > I think here it is the font size in points and not the Scale factor from
> > the Appearance options that applies.
>
> Hi Michael.
> Yes, that is right and beyond 24 font size it does not seem to make a
> difference.
>
> > As a workaround, you can extend the size of the main ImageJ panel by
> > loading more Tools in your StartupMacros.
>
> Will try that. Unfortunately the icons are too small anyway, so I would
> have
> to add a ton of icons tools. Perhaps making the main window expandable
> again
> would allow resizing it to taste, but maybe there is a good reason to have
> it
> fixed.
>
> I found a window manager option to force a window to a given size, but
> then
> all windows get resized to that size.
> At the moment it appears that reducing the screen resolution is the only
> thing
> that makes IJ usable again. A pity because this kind of defeats the
> purpose of
> having a finer screen resolutions.
>
> Regards
>
> Gabriel
>
> --
> ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html
>

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Curtis Rueden]

Hi Gabriel,

It looks like ImageJ's main window stopped being resizable with 1.50c:

https://github.com/imagej/ImageJA/commit/f298dd3cc14d841385208f0de6e4e035f1626ca0
https://github.com/imagej/imagej1/commit/6db28f19a91411a4fff41fcd6a4720590465f918

Rationale from the release notes:
> Fixed a bug that caused the "ImageJ" window to expand to full screen
> on Windows and Linux when you double clicked on the title bar.

I did some digging into why ImageJ2 (and therefore Fiji) is able to resize
the main window, but plain ImageJ 1.x is not. The reason is that ImageJ2
creates the ij.ImageJ instance in NO_SHOW mode, then shows the window
manually as appropriate. So the logic setting the frame to non-resizable
never happens when ImageJ is launched the ImageJ2 way.

Regards,
Curtis

--
Curtis Rueden
LOCI software architect - https://loci.wisc.edu/software
ImageJ2 lead, Fiji maintainer - https://imagej.net/User:Rueden
Have you tried the Image.sc Forum? https://forum.image.sc/



On Tue, Jan 15, 2019 at 3:13 PM Curtis Rueden <
[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hi Gabriel,
>
> > Perhaps making the main window expandable again would allow resizing
> > it to taste, but maybe there is a good reason to have it fixed.
>
> Interesting. I tested this (Xubuntu with Xfce in a VM, plain ImageJ 1.52a),
> and found the window could not be resized; the window moves instead of
> resizing when grabbing an edge. Whereas with Fiji (with ImageJ 2.0.0-rc-69
> / 1.52i) I am able to resize by grabbing the window edges. Launching that
> same Fiji installation with the "--ij1" option also results in an ImageJ
> window that cannot be resized for me.
>
> The following JavaScript code will resize the main window directly:
>
>   importClass(Packages.ij.IJ)
>   importClass(Packages.java.awt.Dimension)
>   IJ.getInstance().setSize(new Dimension(850, 350))
>
> You can run it with Plugins > New > Javascript, or the Script Editor, or
> Script Interpreter, or whatever code execution method you like.
>
> I am not able to reproduce your HiDPI issue on my Ubuntu Linux VM, but that
> might be due to VirtualBox's display handling—I don't think my Linux
> desktop considers itself to be running in a HiDPI environment within
> VirtualBox.
>
> Regards,
> Curtis
>
> --
> Curtis Rueden
> LOCI software architect - https://loci.wisc.edu/software
> ImageJ2 lead, Fiji maintainer - https://imagej.net/User:Rueden
> Have you tried the Image.sc Forum? https://forum.image.sc/
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 15, 2019 at 8:35 AM Gabriel Landini <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
>
> > On Tuesday, 15 January 2019 12:53:57 GMT you wrote:
> > > concerning the main ImageJ Panel:
> > > I think here it is the font size in points and not the Scale factor
> from
> > > the Appearance options that applies.
> >
> > Hi Michael.
> > Yes, that is right and beyond 24 font size it does not seem to make a
> > difference.
> >
> > > As a workaround, you can extend the size of the main ImageJ panel by
> > > loading more Tools in your StartupMacros.
> >
> > Will try that. Unfortunately the icons are too small anyway, so I would
> > have
> > to add a ton of icons tools. Perhaps making the main window expandable
> > again
> > would allow resizing it to taste, but maybe there is a good reason to
> have
> > it
> > fixed.
> >
> > I found a window manager option to force a window to a given size, but
> > then
> > all windows get resized to that size.
> > At the moment it appears that reducing the screen resolution is the only
> > thing
> > that makes IJ usable again. A pity because this kind of defeats the
> > purpose of
> > having a finer screen resolutions.
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Gabriel
> >
> > --
> > ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html
> >
>
> --
> ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html
>

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Wayne Rasband-2]

> On Jan 14, 2019, at 6:08 PM, Gabriel Landini <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Hi I wonder if anybody has encountered a solution for the small appearance of
> IJ when using high resolution screens.

Set “GUI scale” to 1.5 or higher in the Edit>Options>Appearance dialog in the ImageJ 1.52k30 daily build, restart ImageJ, and the “ImageJ” window will double in size. Set “GUI scale” to 2.5 and it will triple in size. On Linux, the font size of the menu bar and menus also double or triple on size. Weirdly, on Windows 10, the menu bar font size does not change. “GUI scale” replaces the “Text scale” option that was in previous 1.52k daily builds.

-wayne

> ImageJ on a 16 inches monitor with
> 3840x2160 pixels is impossible to read (literally one needs a magnifying glass
> to read the text!).  I am seeing this in Kubuntu, with NVidia drivers.
>
> I am aware of the Font option, however setting sizes larger than 16 (still too
> small) the Window and Help menu entries do not fit in the fixed size of the
> rest of the application anymore and are not shown. I guess this is because the
> icons/buttons have a fixed size and the main application frame is fixed?
> The new Appearance Text Scale works to some degree with the submenus, but not
> with the application menu or the output sent to text windows. One can enlarge
> the text window fonts, but I cannot find a way to store this as a default
> either.
>
> All other applications follow the system font settings. The only other
> application with small fonts was Firefox, but it could be solved with the GTK
> font size settings.
>
> Is there any way of scaling both the application buttons and the fonts other
> than setting a low screen resolution?
>
> Thanks for any suggestions.
>
> Gabriel
>
> --
> ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Krs5]

Hi Curtis, Wayne, Gabriel

This is interesting. Due to the fact that I have some additional items in the menu bar (BAR and ThreeDViewer) I have to resize my GUI every time when I restart Fiji. This script could do it automatically. So I have saved it as a *.js file in the macro folder and added a line to the Edit > Options > Startup.. to do this.

In my case the code is: runMacro("Z:\\program files\\Fiji.app\\macros\\Startup_resize.js");

It works if I add it and close the Startup menu. It executes the code in this window and the GUI is resized. However, if I restart Fiji, it does not resize the GUI and there is no error message. If I go back to the Startup.. menu window, make a change (extra return) and close this menu it execute this again and runs the script correctly. So it seems to work, but fails at startup .

Best wishes

Kees


Dr Ir K.R. Straatman
Senior Experimental Officer
Advanced Imaging Facility
Centre for Core Biotechnology Services
University of Leicester
www.le.ac.uk/advanced-imaging-facility


-----Original Message-----
From: ImageJ Interest Group <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Curtis Rueden
Sent: 15 January 2019 21:04
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Fonts too small

Hi Gabriel,

> Perhaps making the main window expandable again would allow resizing
> it to taste, but maybe there is a good reason to have it fixed.

Interesting. I tested this (Xubuntu with Xfce in a VM, plain ImageJ 1.52a), and found the window could not be resized; the window moves instead of resizing when grabbing an edge. Whereas with Fiji (with ImageJ 2.0.0-rc-69 / 1.52i) I am able to resize by grabbing the window edges. Launching that same Fiji installation with the "--ij1" option also results in an ImageJ window that cannot be resized for me.

The following JavaScript code will resize the main window directly:

  importClass(Packages.ij.IJ)
  importClass(Packages.java.awt.Dimension)
  IJ.getInstance().setSize(new Dimension(850, 350))

You can run it with Plugins > New > Javascript, or the Script Editor, or Script Interpreter, or whatever code execution method you like.

I am not able to reproduce your HiDPI issue on my Ubuntu Linux VM, but that might be due to VirtualBox's display handling—I don't think my Linux desktop considers itself to be running in a HiDPI environment within VirtualBox.

Regards,
Curtis

--
Curtis Rueden
LOCI software architect - https://loci.wisc.edu/software
ImageJ2 lead, Fiji maintainer - https://imagej.net/User:Rueden Have you tried the Image.sc Forum? https://forum.image.sc/



On Tue, Jan 15, 2019 at 8:35 AM Gabriel Landini <[hidden email]>
wrote:

> On Tuesday, 15 January 2019 12:53:57 GMT you wrote:
> > concerning the main ImageJ Panel:
> > I think here it is the font size in points and not the Scale factor
> > from the Appearance options that applies.
>
> Hi Michael.
> Yes, that is right and beyond 24 font size it does not seem to make a
> difference.
>
> > As a workaround, you can extend the size of the main ImageJ panel by
> > loading more Tools in your StartupMacros.
>
> Will try that. Unfortunately the icons are too small anyway, so I
> would have to add a ton of icons tools. Perhaps making the main window
> expandable again would allow resizing it to taste, but maybe there is
> a good reason to have it fixed.
>
> I found a window manager option to force a window to a given size, but
> then all windows get resized to that size.
> At the moment it appears that reducing the screen resolution is the
> only thing that makes IJ usable again. A pity because this kind of
> defeats the purpose of having a finer screen resolutions.
>
> Regards
>
> Gabriel
>
> --
> ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html
>

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

--
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[Gabriel Landini]

Dear Wayne, Curtis, Kees and Michael,
Many thanks  for the various suggestions.

Wayne's latest build seems to resolve most of the issues and makes it usable
again. Many thanks for that.
The Text window and the Results fonts can be increased and the setting saved,
so that is fine too.

Some remaining issues:
The B&C and threshold applets (and others?) still appear in tiny fonts, I
presume that this is not resolvable?
The Command finder respects the enlarged GUI font, but the row heights are
fixed, so the text gets truncated.

I also noted a very minor issue: when using the resized tool icons (not the
default ones, but those added by the user), get "half painted" (actually half
the vertical lines get repainted). This happens after the tools were used
once. The added icons get fully repainted when selecting a built in icon.

As usual many thanks for looking into this.

Cheers

Gabriel

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Wayne Rasband-2]

> On Jan 16, 2019, at 5:43 AM, Gabriel Landini <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Dear Wayne, Curtis, Kees and Michael,
> Many thanks  for the various suggestions.
>
> Wayne's latest build seems to resolve most of the issues and makes it usable
> again. Many thanks for that.
> The Text window and the Results fonts can be increased and the setting saved,
> so that is fine too.
>
> Some remaining issues:
> The B&C and threshold applets (and others?) still appear in tiny fonts, I
> presume that this is not resolvable?

In the latest daily build (1.52k37), the B&C window respects the Edit>Options>Appearance "GUI scale” setting with the exception of button labels on Windows and Linux.

> The Command finder respects the enlarged GUI font, but the row heights are
> fixed, so the text gets truncated.

This is fixed in the daily build.

> I also noted a very minor issue: when using the resized tool icons (not the
> default ones, but those added by the user), get "half painted" (actually half
> the vertical lines get repainted). This happens after the tools were used
> once. The added icons get fully repainted when selecting a built in icon.

This should be fixed in the daily build.

> As usual many thanks for looking into this.
>
> Cheers
>
> Gabriel

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ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Gabriel Landini]

On Thursday, 17 January 2019 04:42:44 GMT you wrote:
> > I also noted a very minor issue: when using the resized tool icons (not
> > the default ones, but those added by the user), get "half painted"
> > (actually half the vertical lines get repainted). This happens after the
> > tools were used once. The added icons get fully repainted when selecting a
> > built in icon.
> This should be fixed in the daily build.

Hi Wayne,
Thanks for the fixes. The last one (above) is not fixed. See the screenshot.
The top part is the original appearance of the icons. The bottom one is the
half-vertical repainting after pressing the buttons. It is not a major issue,
of course.

Best wishes

Gabriel

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