Menu font size too small to read

[Prexy]

I have installed 2.10.36 on my opensuse KDE desktop. The font size of all menus are so small that they are essentially unreadable. I can’t find a way to correct this, especially since I can’t read sub-menus when I select them. My desktop resolution is 1360x768 but when I load an image, there is a line in the top of the window that ends with 1536x2048.

My immediate task is to add captions to photos. The photos load accurately but I can’t read the menus to accomplish this simple task

[libreajans (Sabri Ünal)]

"It is possible to customize the GIMP theme and icon theme through Preferences. However, when it comes to changing the interface font and size, you need to make edits through the file.

Normally, GIMP uses the font preferred for gtk universally in gtk applications. Some applications may allow you to change the font and font size through the Settings/Preferences page. GIMP is not among them.

For GIMP 2.10 (and other GIMP 2.x series versions), you need to edit the gtkrc file in the settings folder under the hidden ./config folder located in your home directory.

In my example, it was enough for me to add the following code to the end of the file. Of course, you need to choose a font compatible with the font on your system.

#Let's change the interface font
style "font"
{
font_name = "Verdana 11"
}
widget_class "*" style "font"

For Windows users, the gtkrc file is located under C:\users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\GIMP\2.x.

UserName represents your username.
2.x represents the version you are using.

Let me share a screenshot as a result. Compare for yourself between Ubuntu 10 and Verdana 11."

Source: GIMP arayüz yazı tipini değiştirmek – Çokça Linux biraz da PHP

[Prexy]

Thank you for trying to help. But this had no effect. I added that language to both gtkrc and gtkrc-2.0, changing from Verdana to Noto Sans. I noticed that, in Pinta, while the menus are too tiny to read, the tab in the image window was normal.

[gstalnaker (Guy Stalnaker)]

Prexy - did you happen to watch the YouTube video I suggested. I ask because there are likely more than one gtkrc file on your computer. You must confirm that the file you edited is the file that GIMP uses, and not one for another application, or the general system itself.

In case you did not get it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uKqtmuXj_A

He’s using a Windows version of GIMP, but it is directly applicable to Linux following the dialog windows in GIMP, and substituing your preferred text editor (rather than his notepad).

You should, if you followed the steps in that excellent video, have something like this:

/home/<your_user_id>/.config/GIMP/2.10/themes/<theme_folder>/gtkrc

where <theme_folder> is a folder you copied from the primary GIMP installation folders, so you could then modify the gtkrc file in it. I have done this myself, and I have:

drwxr-xr-x 3 guyst guyst 4.0K Dec 12 18:23 NAKDark/
drwxr-xr-x 3 guyst guyst 4.0K Dec 13 09:26 NAKGray/
drwxr-xr-x 3 guyst guyst 4.0K Dec 12 18:23 NAKLight/
drwxr-xr-x 2 guyst guyst 4.0K Dec 12 18:23 System/

Each of these were copied from the GIMP installation folders:

➜  themes ll /usr/share/gimp/2.0/themes
total 16K
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Dec 15 02:01 Dark/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Dec 15 02:01 Gray/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Dec 15 02:01 Light/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Dec 15 02:01 System/

I then modified the gtkrc file in each of them:

gtk-font-name = "bullpen 13"

# KDE hack to match gtk/gnome defaults
gtk-button-images = 0

style "gimp-dark-default-style"
{
  font_name = "bullpen 13"

Well, I used the font “ubuntu” and not “bullpen” but you’ll see why that’s in this snippet below.

I confirm that doing this, for me on my KDE installation, does change both font and fontsize for the GIMP user interface. Here is the installed GIMP Gray theme, with unchanged fonts:

And here is that same default Gray theme, copied to the the .config/GIMP/2.10/theme/ folder I show above, with the edits I show with a font that’s pretty obviously not the default font:

[PixLab (Patrice)]

For the icon size in dialogs, just in case of.
Select the tab of your fonts and THEN click on that very tiny icon (triangle alike) on the far right of the tabs’ row, a sub menu will opens > select Preview Size, another sub menu will opens, select a bigger size

[Prexy]

I finally got this to work!!! I tried the edits you suggested but that failed because I obviously missed something important. I watched the video, for nearly a half hour, stepping back and forth to the GIMP dialogue boxes. As an aside, what he called a huge font, I see as normal for all menus, even smaller than I would settle for.

Thank you for sticking with me and getting GIMP usable.