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cc12565
Participant
July 11, 2013
Answered

Is it even possible to increase the font size in the Illustrator CC UI? Panels are unreadable!

  • July 11, 2013
  • 13 replies
  • 67360 views

With the demise of my beloved Fireworks, I am giving Illustrator CC a try. Right off the bat it is unusable due to the microscopic font sizes in the UI, panels in particular. Is there any way to make the UI more readable?

Correct answer AshutoshChaturvedi

126% made a big difference for me. Thank you Sanjay! Suddenly it's like the '90s all over again


ellencarnahan  wrote

126% made a big difference for me. Thank you Sanjay! Suddenly it's like the '90s all over again

Thanks for reviving this old thread. We have this feature in Illustrator CC 2019 - How to customize the Illustrator workspace

13 replies

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T
Thomas Dearie
Known Participant
June 23, 2014

I'm using a 30" display at 2500 pixels in Mac at a pixel density of 101 ppi.

Even at that pixel density, the UI font size in the whole CC suite is a strain to work on all day.

It slows me down and makes my eyes tired.

I have the screen room, so I'd like to be able to enlarge my UI size.

This is a huge usability issue.

Even in Photoshop where one can supposedly increase the UI font size, it hardly makes a difference.

Please add the ability to enlarge the UI interface sizes. This is more important to me than more features within the app, as it directly affects every aspect of my work.

I should note that I have 20/20 vision.

    D
    dm33089108
    Participant
    July 11, 2016

    I was using an iMac and got fed up with the lousy systems and software from Apple.  For the desktop Apple only goes as high as 16pt font.  I moved back to PC and got a 4K Benq monitor 3840 x2160.  What a shock going into Photoshop and needing a magnify glass to see layers, channels and tools.  Given this and Adobe's stupidity in removing Save For Web in 2015 CC I give Adobe a "F".  I do not want to hear that the legacy Save For Web is still there.  It isn't ! ! ! !  I went back to 2014 CC and there is a big difference in the quality and time it takes to save a file.  2014 CC still works the best.  My photos look better than the iMac.

    I'm shopping around for another program to use such as On1's editing software.  Sorry Abobe but you've gotten too greedy and stupid in your software.  Monitors are only going to get better with resolution and displaying your work.  You need to adapt.  Get your act together Adobe.

      chrisstraight
      chrisstraight
      Inspiring
      May 19, 2014

      In OSX search for the "FontTheme_Panel.xml" file within the "Adobe Illustrator CC.app" package. (right click + "show package contents"). In it you'll see the code below.... I didn't mess with the "!ENTITY" kText values, just the "FontSize name=" values. You'll probably want to bump the "Text_Main_Large" size up to 13. Past that it doesn't read well but then again I guess you could set custom row heights for panels like layers.

      And as always, back up the original and back up your altered file.

      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

      <!DOCTYPE ThemeParameters [

        <!-- defines entities for the text ids -->

        <!ENTITY kText_Main_Large "0"> <!-- default text id -->

        <!ENTITY kText_Main_Small "1">

        <!ENTITY kText_Title "2">

        <!-- entity definitions for the font size schemes -->

        <!ENTITY kFontSizeSchemeSmall "0">

        <!ENTITY kFontSizeSchemeMedium "1">

        <!ENTITY kFontSizeSchemeLarge "2">

      ]>

      <ThemeParameters>

        <ThemeFonts>

          <FontSize name="&kText_Main_Small;" size="8" scheme="&kFontSizeSchemeSmall;" />

          <FontSize name="&kText_Main_Small;" size="8" scheme="&kFontSizeSchemeMedium;" />

          <FontSize name="&kText_Main_Small;" size="8" scheme="&kFontSizeSchemeLarge;" />

          <FontSize name="&kText_Main_Large;" size="10" scheme="&kFontSizeSchemeSmall;" />

          <FontSize name="&kText_Main_Large;" size="10" scheme="&kFontSizeSchemeMedium;" />

          <FontSize name="&kText_Main_Large;" size="10" scheme="&kFontSizeSchemeLarge;" />

          <FontSize name="&kText_Title;" size="12" scheme="&kFontSizeSchemeSmall;" />

          <FontSize name="&kText_Title;" size="12" scheme="&kFontSizeSchemeMedium;" />

          <FontSize name="&kText_Title;" size="12" scheme="&kFontSizeSchemeLarge;" />

        </ThemeFonts>

      </ThemeParameters>

      Godspeed

        Tereyn
        Tereyn
        Participating Frequently
        February 16, 2016

        To chrisstraight: I am unable to find either the "FontTheme_Panel.xml" file or the "Adobe Illustrator CC.app" package, so was unable to try this solution. What version of OS X are you working in?

        Mylenium
        Mylenium
        Legend
        July 11, 2013

        In so many words: No. That stuff is hard-coded at the core.

        Mylenium

          C
          cc12565Author
          Participant
          July 11, 2013

          Well that just stinks. Not sure what I'm going to use now, but Illustrator sure isn't it.

            P
            Paulette R.
            Participating Frequently
            October 18, 2013

            What is your resolution and operating system?


            Rama,

            Monitor 1 is a Dell S2340M set to 1920x1080.  Monitor 2 is a Samsung S20B350, set to 1600 x 900.  Both of these are the "recommended" settings for their respective monitors. 

            I am running Windows 8.  Using the control panel,  I've adjusted all items to a medium setting of 125% as a normal practice.  In trying to resolve my issues with Illustrator, I experimented with increasing the Text Size for various items (title bars, menus, icons, etc) from the default of 9 to higher settings.  The effects showed in places like Office, but did not have any impact in Illustrator.  I am guessing that my text is being displayed at 8.  Here is a screen capture which will give you an idea of the relative size of the menu and icons to the overall screen

            To some degree I have gotten used to dealing with the small text size in Photoshop because there are not as many icons, menus, etc, but Illustrator is really a challenge.  Any ideas?  

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