Bug 361295

Summary:	desktop scaling with setting font dpi no longer looks right
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	winsaucerer
Component:	general	Assignee:	David Edmundson <kde>
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	normal	CC:	bshah, plasma-bugs-null
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	triaged
Version First Reported In:	5.6.1
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Arch Linux
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	DPI forced to 192, no scaling DPI forced to 192, 2x scaling Default Font DPI, 2x scaling Default Font DPI, no scaling password request with large elements relative to font

Description winsaucerer 2016-04-01 22:42:50 UTC

I recently upgraded plasma using arch packages, not sure where i came from (likely 5.4 or 5.5). I have a high resolution display, and was using:
1. Desktop scaling set to 2x
2. Force fonts DPI to 192

This meant that most applications looked right. UI elements were for most things I used correctly sized, and fonts looked right.

Now that I've updated to 5.6, things no longer look right. Suppose that I don't force fonts DPI to 192, so it defaults to 96, but I have scaling at 2x. In that case, native KDE programs like dolphin and system settings look right -- correct font size, correct element sizes. But many things have small fonts, such as: chromium, the application launcher menu.

If I then increase the font size to 192 with scaling at 2x, other programs (like Chromium) start to look right, but now the native programs like dolphin and system settings have huge fonts, as does the lock screen.

If I set font size to 192 with scaling at 1x, then most things look close to right, but the icons in dolphin and system settings are too small. The application launcher looks right, with the right sized icons (where 'right' means they appear to be double scaled).

It seems to me that some programs are scaling their fonts as a result of the scaling option along with their UI elements, while others are not scaling either. Then, when I scale the font size, *some* applications are getting a double dose of font sizing (adding it to that which they already do from the desktop scaling option), while others are not.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1 David Edmundson 2016-04-02 07:34:26 UTC

screenshots please.

Also what version of Qt?

Comment 2 winsaucerer 2016-04-02 11:37:40 UTC

Created attachment 98202 [details]
DPI forced to 192, no scaling

Comment 3 winsaucerer 2016-04-02 11:38:22 UTC

Created attachment 98203 [details]
DPI forced to 192, 2x scaling

Comment 4 winsaucerer 2016-04-02 11:39:21 UTC

Created attachment 98204 [details]
Default Font DPI, 2x scaling

Comment 5 winsaucerer 2016-04-02 11:40:45 UTC

Created attachment 98205 [details]
Default Font DPI, no scaling

Comment 6 winsaucerer 2016-04-02 11:44:13 UTC

I created these screenshots via a fresh user account, so that there weren't strange old settings doing something funny.  You may also notice in the screenshots that the window title bar is affected by the different settings.  Right now for the programs I tend to use, I've found that the most tolerable settings are to have no scaling, and force font dpi 192.

Qt versions installed (arch):
Name            : qt4
Version         : 4.8.7-7

Name            : qt5-base
Version         : 5.6.0-2

Please let me know if I can provide you with any more information

Comment 7 winsaucerer 2016-04-04 06:10:02 UTC

I've made some progress, based on reading https://blog.qt.io/blog/2016/01/26/high-dpi-support-in-qt-5-6/

By setting the following environment variables, the icon sizes of kde 5 programs is much improved:

export QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=1
export GDK_SCALE=2
export GDK_DPI_SCALE=0.5

The GDK stuff does not affect Qt apps, but including for completeness, since DPI needs to be halved because of (presumably) my forced dpi setting.  This is with scaling in systemsettings set to 1x, and force font dpi in systemsettings to 192.

It's not perfect with these settings.  The UI elements look a bit too large compared to normal (that is, how it looked before I updated), but it's much nicer than the small icons that I had before.  Will attach a screenshot to hopefully illustrate a little.

Comment 8 winsaucerer 2016-04-04 06:12:37 UTC

Created attachment 98231 [details]
password request with large elements relative to font

Comment 9 Andrew Crouthamel 2018-09-26 22:28:08 UTC

Dear Bug Submitter,

This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least 15 days. Please provide the requested information as soon as possible and set the bug status as REPORTED. Due to regular bug tracker maintenance, if the bug is still in NEEDSINFO status with no change in 30 days, the bug will be closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the wiki located here: https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

If you have already provided the requested information, please set the bug status as REPORTED so that the KDE team knows that the bug is ready to be confirmed.

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!

Comment 10 Andrew Crouthamel 2018-10-27 02:27:42 UTC

Dear Bug Submitter,

This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least 30 days. The bug is now closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the wiki located here: https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!