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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
  • 67310 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
            February 25, 2016

            Adobe can afford to be stupid because we're all signed up with contracts to their jacked up software. Adobe, the innovator in high resolution rendering that can't build an interface for a high resolution screen. Previous versions didn't have these problems.

            Maya (2011) software you can't adjust the UI text either, at least from the UI. What you need to do is edit the code from within the program. That's what I did so I could see the type. 5 years ago 4k wasn't common so I think it's justifiable options aren't available in this old software. 

            Adobe on the other hand has no excuse, this is pure incompetence. Adobe, the company of innovation, web scaling to bring sites to every device, video rendering in 4k and 6k for the 5 years I think but some genius has over looked the UI's for the industries most valuable creative tools. What is going on here?

            And I would like to reiterate that previous versions didn't have these flaws. Get it together, I'm forced to use "animate" because "flash" disappeared from my computer when I updated, thanks.


            I would like to suggest that you all save your voice, energy, and angst.  This same string of commentary has been going on regarding Photoshop for at least 18 months.  Here is the sequence of events.  Someone invests in Adobe subscription and opens up the software expecting a creative and (for us geeks) fun experience.  And, then the font is unreadable on our high resolution monitors (which by the way is the normal investment for someone using an Adobe product).  We play around with the settings - yes, preferences is the first place we go, this is not our first rodeo.  We go to the "community" and have no problem finding comment after comment, complaint after complaint. 

            Fellow users offer all sorts of work arounds including hand-jamming the registry (don't).  The Adobe "expert" obviously doesn't live with this issue (if they did, it would have been fixed in beta testing).  He/she directs you to the preference panel with the 200% UI fix.  Oh, it does fix the font issue, but renders the workspace and panels unusable.  On the Photoshop threads, the Adobe expert actually had the nerve to declare this problem "resolved"  twice.  But finally, after taking so much virulent feedback pointed the finger at Microsoft.  Really?!?  If Microsoft was the source of the problem then Windows 10 should have fixed it, since it runs beautifully with all of my other software.  No. 

            I do not understand this from a company that has been the indisputable  leader in graphics software.   My solution was to reload my CS6.  I have reduced my Adobe subscription to the absolute minimum.  If I didn't have to deal with this company, I would not.  Arrogant.  Unresponsive.  Greedy. 

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