How to make *all* text & icons bigger without the antialiasing of scaling

Discussions about using Linux guests in VirtualBox.
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Tek Unsavvy
Posts: 24
Joined: 20. Oct 2021, 23:19

How to make *all* text & icons bigger without the antialiasing of scaling

Post by Tek Unsavvy »

I am running ubuntu-20.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso on VirtualBox 6.1.28 on a Windows 10 laptop. Everything is a *lot* smaller than on Windows itself.

Most apps let you choose font sizes, but that doesn't affect *everything*, e.g,. titlebars on many apps, icons, etc.

I found it helpful to scale the VM display by 125%, but that causes washed out colors in Gvim, probably due to anti-aliasing.

Ubuntu has an accessibility option "Large Text", which seems the best solution so far, but some apps seem impervious to it, e.g., Matlab.

Is there any way to force *everything* to scale up without the washing out of colours?

Hopefully without re-installing the VM, as I just took a few days to get to know the potholes of Linux accounts, cut/paste buffers, and environment customization for administrator and nonadministrator accounts. I don't have the freedom of redoing all that right now. Also, Matlab frowns on too many activations due to re-installation.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: How to make *all* text & icons bigger without the antialiasing of scaling

Post by mpack »

Tek Unsavvy wrote: Is there any way to force *everything* to scale up without the washing out of colours?
The only scaling feature provided by VirtualBox is the one you already mentioned, where you apply 125%

Everything else you mention, i.e. icons, text size, the appearance of running apps: is a matter for the guest OS and guest apps. VirtualBox doesn't draw any of that stuff. My experience with Linux is slight, but I have found that some desktop environments offer more obvious control over these things than others.
Tek Unsavvy
Posts: 24
Joined: 20. Oct 2021, 23:19

Re: How to make *all* text & icons bigger without the antialiasing of scaling

Post by Tek Unsavvy »

I actually prepared a VM log file but forgot to attach it. Thanks for answering anyway!

I thought that the "problem" might have been that the host Windows 10 is already set to scale at 150%, and that the VM display seemed so small in comparison it might be impervious to the Windows 10 scaling. As a test, I set the Windows 10 scaling to down 100%, expecting the VM fonts to be unaffected, but I was wrong. The fonts became so small that they were hardly recognizable as text.

I've resorted to using 150% scaling on the host Windows 10 and 150% VirtualBox scaling. I will live with the washing of the text until I get an answer from the Ubuntu forum.

Thanks again!
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: How to make *all* text & icons bigger without the antialiasing of scaling

Post by mpack »

Tek Unsavvy wrote: I thought that the "problem" might have been that the host Windows 10 is already set to scale at 150%
Like the similar features in Linux, Windows scaling generally only applies to icons, fonts, caption bar height et al. And it each case it simply draws a larger object - it doesn't resize pixels, so this would have no affect on the client area of a Window where the VM draws.

There is though a separate feature in Windows called "DPI Awareness". If Windows thinks you are running an old app it will try to make it compatible with 4K monitors by scaling the pixels everywhere. You access this control by right clicking the executable (or shortcut to executable), then choose Properties and Compatibility. You'll see a button to "Change high DPI settings". I suggest that you NOT mess with this when dealing with any VirtualBox window - leave all the DPI scaling options unchecked. VirtualBox is a modern app which has roughly monthly updates, it is not a legacy app that needs unfortunate hacks to keep it current.
Tek Unsavvy
Posts: 24
Joined: 20. Oct 2021, 23:19

Re: How to make *all* text & icons bigger without the antialiasing of scaling

Post by Tek Unsavvy »

Windows 10 has a setting to "Make everything bigger", which might do as you say (draw everything bigger rather than resize pixels).
MakeEverythingBigger.png
MakeEverythingBigger.png (83.15 KiB) Viewed 7985 times
When I reduced it from 150% to 100%, however, everything inside of the VM screen got much smaller. The problematic Matlab became unusable as opposed to just painful to use. Somehow, it does affect the VM scaling.

I found a way to get Matlab to become bigger: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral ... s-on-linux

It has two steps, one within Matlab to increase scaling from 100% to 150%, and another to mess with the DPI outside of Matlab. I only did the first step, as I did want to mess up all of Ubuntu by messing with the DPI. The first step was good enough, allowing me to use VirtualBox's scaling back to 100%, eliminating much of the washing out of text in Gvim. I still had to enable Ubuntu's Large Text accessibility option, and I had to rein the terminal fonts back to size 11.

I'd have to say that this was more than just more than just a very nice to have. Without the Matlab scale-up, and having to use VirtualBox's 150% scaling, the menu ribbon information on Matlab was almost indiscernible. Not because it was too small, but because it was like looking through a dirty window. Hoping that this helps someone else.

P.S. I wish there was a way to shrink attached images.
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