How to fix small menus and icons on 4k display in Photoshop? [2015]

[LucasHash]

[This 7-year-old question from 2015 about CS6 and Windows 8.1 is now locked.

Please start a new thread about the current version if you have a similar question]

Hello,

So I have seen that I am not the first one to ask this question, but I have yet to find any true resolutions.  I recently bought anew laptop, a Lenovo with a 4K UHD display which I already love for so many things.  But, like a few other programs, the high resolution means the icons and menu text of PS CS6 are incredibly small, which may be alright on a TV, but on a laptop screen, it make it incredibly difficult to work.  I have tried all sorts of different approaches in Windows, such as changing the OS font sizes and icon sizes, which do indeed change everything else on the computer, but PS is still the same tiny size.  I have also increased the text size under the interface preferences to large, but with little real change.  I understand why this is happening, but I am hoping that there is some sort of workaround, beyond just bumping down my screen resolution, which defeats the whole purpose of using UHD to edit photos.  I have heard rumors of being able to code in some UI changes manually, but have found no concrete examples of how to actually do that. 

I am sure that it would not take Adobe too much time and effort to create an update to help with scaling, but they are very set on pushing forward with Creative Clound, leaving the rest of us loyal customers to the dust until we pay up.  If anyone has found any resolutions or workarounds, I'd really appreciate it.  Thank you. 

[dawoodx27]

thx man it works!!!

[ax201]

That fixed it for me too. Thank you riggitynick

[JLConnor3rd57]

Thanks, riggitynick! This work perfectly.

[smca1]

Worked for me on CS6 and PS Elements 11

[SoreWrist]

Uh dosnt work for me...

[LaurenConw]

Ahh THANK YOU! I've just lived with this issue for years but this fix was perfect and now the program looks the way it should on my Surface Pro 5. Thank you!!

[bill.kindred@comcast.net]

same works with Lightroom 5.7

[Kina_Aasa13]

@riggitynick

Thank you! Your reply fixed my issue (same as OP). I was kind of regretting getting a 4k monitor if I can't use it for photoshop! ❤️ 

[0_5FFC]

Thank you, it worked so well

[Ezzatonian]

Worked awesome for me!!, and I use a widescreen monitor at 3440x1440 and had a very hard time see the UI (eyes arn't the best either) but this litle trick did wonders for me in Windows 10 ( which I hate if were being honest lol ) and allowed me to see everything so much better, as I have my preferences also at 125 - 150% fo rmaking apps,shortcuts and stuff bigger to view and it does it with programs too. So with this trick it applied it to Photoshop CS6 as well, truely helped a young artist out!!

[bridgetc9178246]

This is a little late,

but for windows, I found that if you navigate to where the actual application file(.exe) is,

right-click it and select properties,

choose the compatibility tab and select "Change high dpi settings" under the settings section,

in the next window, select the checkbox that says "High DPI scaling override",

and choose "System" from the drop down.

-Hit ok to save the changes, and then re-open Photoshop(i've only tested it with photoshop and illustrator).

That fixed it for me.


This fixed it for me too! Thank you!

[Carolyn5F9F]

Thank you thank you thank you for this fix!!! I just got a new Lenovo desktop and my Photoshop Elements 6.0 (yes, 6.0) window and menu text were TINY. I tried fixing the general resolution but no change. I thought there was no way I'd find a fix online, but lo and behold..... And it worked!! I thank you and my eyes thank you, riggitynick !!

[lud89]

Thank you. Best answer....

[Richard_GGG]

riggitynick,

I just moved to a new pc and DW6 was unusable after I installed it because everything was SO tiny.  Then I found your solution about modifying the exe file properties and that did the trick!  I can't tell you what a relief that was.  Thank you!!

Richard

[Andrew B.]

I tried the method where I right click on the exe file for Photoshop, properties, compatibility, override high dpi/system. I've also used the "system enhanced." Both work, except I can't use "save for web and devices" in Photoshop because the interface is too big and the buttons on the bottom are off the screen. Trying to move the interfae doesn't help. So there might be other tools that can't be used. 

[Andrew B.]

Since posting I have solved a couple more problems: cursor size and button access on "save for web. I set my resoltuion to 1366x768 and my task bar to auto-hide. I should add that I no longer use Photoshop at a high level, and I don't know how will this would work for someoone who did. 

[fabian23243302aznx]

Thanks! it helped me a lot

[David22536335gmra]

Thanks very much for this PSD .exe solution!

[RWright61700]

I believe that I have solved Photoshop's Tiny Menus Problem!

At the time, I was trying to resolve the issue of the Healing Brush OVERSING in the Healing Brush issue what I did appeared to solve both the oversized brushed as well as the Tiny Photoshop Menu issues.

All that I did was to go Display Settings and chose the Resolution one level down from the 3840 x 2160 (Recommended) setting to some lower setting. For me, I was able to set the Display Resolution up to 2560 x 1600. ALSO ... I did not need to adjust the Compatibility Setting within Photoshop to get the Healing Brush or the Spot Healing Tool to function Properly.