Fixing Tiny Font and Icons in
Image Editors
If you install a Windows system with a
small but very high resolution monitor (e.g. 4K or 8K) you can let
Windows choose to apply a scaling so that text and icons stay a
reasonable size, or adjust the scaling yourself using
Right Click on Desktop
Select Display Settings
Adjust [Scale and Layout]
But some applications STILL show some text and Icons too small.
The problem is usually that applications tells Windows that it is
'DPIAware' and should run without re-scaling anything.
This enables images etc. to use the full resolution, but also
expects the App to adjust it's fonts and icons to match the new
scaling instead of using the Windows settings. Most Apps do most
of these, but miss some fonts and some or all icons.
Known offenders as of May 2019 (do email me others that this tool
fixes):-
GIMP 2
Freeware Image processing
tool - all text & icons are too small.
The executable is usually at c:\Program Files\GIMP
2\bin\gimp-2.10.exe
Paintshop Pro
2019
Commercial Corel Image
processing tool - some icons are rescaled but some of the
legends over setting items can be unreadably small.
Unless you are in love with the more
detailed images you can simply turn off this rescaling by changing
an entry in the Windows 'Manifest' for the App, usually to be
found tacked onto the end of the executable file. If you have
access to a binary editor (one that leaves unchanged blanks, EOF
markers and end-line sequences) look for something like (ignoring
letter case)
<dpiAware>true</dpiAware>
and change 'true' to 'fals' (the missing 'e' avoids
problematically changing of the file length, and works fine.)
If you would rather use a small App to make the change then you
can download it from this site at
http://www.moorhen.me.uk/dpiaware/dpiaware.exe.
If you want to check the download it's size is 139,264 bytes.
Download this anywhere you like but where you can easily find
again.
Programmers can build your own version based on the main source
code at
http://www.moorhen.me.uk/dpiaware/dpiaware.c
To use the utility:-
Find the start icon for the App
Right click on it
Select Properties
Write down (or select and Copy) the Target file
name.
Cancel
Press the Windows key + 'R' to start Widows Run dialog and run the
file you downloaded.
You have to acknowledge [Yes] to User Account Control (so it can
access files in \Program Files)
After a few seconds (to give you time to realise that there is
help info on the screen) select the Target file (or just paste
your clipboard).
If the program finds the keywords in the Manifest it will ask you
what to do:-
To turn OFF DPIAware (what you want
initially) answer [No]
To turn it back on if you don't like the
result select [Yes]
Hopefully it will announced success - you can try the App again
immediately and expect to see the change.
Otherwise, there are a variety of error messages that I hope make
sense.
If it is a help you may want to adjust the Windows scaling to
better match your expectations.
VUTRAX PCB CAD (Printed circuit board design by the same author)
doesn't use this mechanism.
If you have a problem read the documentation for environment
variable VTXSCALE which provides DPIAware On/Off & individual
scaling for fonts & icons.