After 16.04 upgrade, menu/window title fonts are comparatively huge to pre-upgrade

[tomwitt]

Even at 1900 x 1080. I've freshly installed two 16.04 systems and upgrade 3 others from 14.04 and they all have this "big font" issue.

But it's not just the fonts. It's also the info boxes that show when you hover over a task bar entry; all the bubbles and info boxes seem much larger than they were on my 14.04 systems.

I've adjusted the toolbar/menu/window title fonts to 9 pt but there's NO WAY these fonts are 9 pt.

I've read that chrome uses a different compositing system and starting chrome manually with /opt/google/chrome/chrome --force-device-scale-factor=.5 seemed to help there but I feel like I'm missing some basic setting. Maybe something related to monitor DPI or ... something.

I feel like a grownup using crayons to do my income taxes when I'm in this embiggened mode. The combined heights of the titlebar, menu, toolbar, and taskbar are stealing precious screen real estate that they did not use to require. It's like 10 yahoo/ask jeeves/crapware stacked toolbars in IE, fer cryin' out loud.

The new 16.04 system is SO much nicer and runs beautifully other than being too damn big.

Any suggestions on where to look or settings to try?

[GreyGeek]

They look GREAT on my 17" inch monitor. My aging eyes couldn't ask for a better setting!

[elijathegold]

I was thinking about the fonts DPI, which in 14.04 is under System Settings -> Application Appearance -> Fonts. In 14.04, it defaults to 96, I believe 120 is another commonly used DPI.

[tomwitt]

Hey, this is progress.

In the fonts area (System Settings -> Fonts), I see there's a "Force Fonts DPI" radio button and a number scroll (defaulting to 96) to set a forced DPI. Forcing a Font DPI of 96 seems to have fixed the system fonts inside my applications (Chrome, Komodo, Kate, etc) although the title bars and task bars of previously opened applications are still relatively large. I'm wondering if I need to do a reboot to fix those elements (the fonts in the apps recovered after I'd shut them down and restarted following the 'Force Font DPI of 96' setting).

I think you've nailed it, @elijathegold. Thanks for the tip!

[tomwitt]

I'm not there, yet, but I'm not far behind when my aging eyes will need relief. You go, ancient linux dude! (Said for effect, not that you're actually ancient).

[GreyGeek]

I'm not there, yet, but I'm not far behind when my aging eyes will need relief. You go, ancient linux dude! (Said for effect, not that you're actually ancient).

May you ever be so lucky! I look ancient, I feel ancient and my grand kids think I am a fossil! The good news is that as I age my memory is slipping as well, so I don't remember ever not being this way! One of life's little benefits?

[emal011]

I have the same problem, but all starts after I installed the nvidia drivers.. "Force Font DPI" helps, but for example the login screen still big... There's a better way to fix that?