Changing the GUI's fonts and icon sizes

Question

As I use a 4k screen, the yEd GUI is unusable as the fonts and icons are far too small. Is there a way for me to change it?

Comments

You can add -Dsun.java2d.uiScale=2.5 to the launch line in the yEd script.
It works with OpenJDK but changes nly the fonts.

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Here's how I launch the .jar in Linux.  This assumes that yed is in /opt/yed

GDK_SCALE=2 java -jar /opt/yed/yed.jar

Note that the scale must be an integer.  Unlike QT apps which can scale fractionally.

Answer 1

yEd currently offers no way to adjust UI font sizes. You could try running yEd on Java 9 which is supposed to come with HDPI support (see Java 9 Support).

Comments

this is a HUGE failure. I just attempted to run this on my Ubuntu 14 on a 15in laptop with high resolution.... It is IMPOSSIBLE to read anything on the yEd.... I have way too many apps that rely on the current screen and font settings I have. If yEd cant adjust its fonts, etc then it is a COMPLETE bust for ubuntu and others like it on laptops. This needs to be addressed. I had high hopes for yEd but this is a SHOW STOPPER.

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Have you actually read through the post linked above? Because the advice from the very first comment does work on Ubuntu.

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When I updated to yEd 3.19 on a Mac running Mojave 10.14.4, I got the same problem. Unfortunately, the recommended version of Java for my MacOS is Java8. So, the fix won't work. Is there another way to solve this or should I just reinstall an earlier version of yEd? Thanks!

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I can fully confirm the last comment for yEd 3.19 (with embedded java 10 jre) on OS X 10.4.3 ("Mojave"). yEd is not usable because of the far too small icons of the yEd GUI.

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Re:

Unfortunately, the recommended version of Java for my MacOS is Java8.

Why do you think that? As far as I know, Oracle recommends using the latest version of Java (which is Java 12.0.1 at the time of this writing). Unfortunately, Oracle's tool for bundling Java runtime environments with applications is only available for Java 10 and earlier which is why we bundle Java 10.0.2 with yEd for macOS. However, there is nothing keeping you from installing the latest Java on your machine and running yEd with the latest Java.

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The only way that worked: Stepping back to an earlier version of yEd (3.17.2).

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Re:

The only way that worked: Stepping back to an earlier version of yEd (3.17.2).

That does not make sense. HDPI support is a Java feature not a yEd feature and as such is determined by the version of Java you are running yEd on. yEd 3.17.2 does come with Java 1.8.0_152 while the current version 3.19 does come with Java 1.8.0_202 and 10.0.2 (on macOS) or 11.0.2 (on Windows and Linux). So, downgrading does not get you anything which 3.19 does not offer as well.

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agreed. There's no way to see anything on the screen unless using a magnifier tool from accessible set. It's so frustrating.

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Re:

agreed.

Agreed to what?

Re:

There's no way to see anything on the screen unless using a magnifier tool ...

This is simply not correct. Java's HDPI support does work on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Which version of yEd are you using?
Which version of Java is yEd running on?
Which operating system is yEd running on?

Answer 2

If you're running Linux, try to add GDK_SCALE=2 before the command :

GDK_SCALE=2 [yED_installation_directory]/./yEd

If you use Gnome, update your .desktop file this way :

Exec=env GDK_SCALE=2 [yED_installation_directory]/yEd

Or use alacarte to edit it with a GUI.