Icon Size settings have zero effect, always same size icons - UI scaling missing?

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#1

I am on LO Fresh, version 7.3.3.2, on Manjaro Gnome fully up to date, Intel based system with a 14" 1920x1280 (3:2) display. I use Tabbed interface with icon set Colibre, also tried Colibre SVG no difference.

Options > LibreOffice > View > Icon Size:

  • Toolbar: there is zero effect Writer (also not after restarting Writer) whhen i switch to Small or Large or Extra Lage. In Calc, only the bottom bar becomes huge when I select Extra Lage.
  • Notebookbar: there is zero effect regardless what I choose, Small or Large.
  • Sidebar: there is zero effect regardless what I choose, Small or Large.

The icons on the toolbar are just way too small. How can I increase them? It is the single top reason why my parents dislike LibreOffice as a whole. UI elements especially toolbar icons are too small.

Note I use 125% display scaling in Manjaro Gnome. It doesn’t seem that LibreOffice respects this system-wide setting.
OnlyOffice DesktopEditors has a scaling %. It is amazing how they only have a handful of general settings, scaling, language, theme. But they are the only ones most people need.

Why is there no UI scaling option in LibreOffice?

When Googling I do see articles written about this with screenshots, seems like the feature is removed in recent versions?

#2

If you read carefully the setting labels: toolbar, NoteBookBar, Sidebar, you’ll notice they target specific elements in the UI.


Toolbars are selected by View>Toolbars>… and added to the toolbar area in the “standard” interface. The UI must somehow understand the notion of toolbar, which is the case for Standard, Single Toolbar and Sidebar. All others are variants of Tabbed UI and seem to have their own management not based on regular toolbars (try to select or deselect toolbars and the UI won’t change). Consequently the toolbar size setting has no effect in tabbed UI because there is no traditional toolbar to act upon).


Personally, I don’t recommend using tabbed UI because it pushes you to direct format your document. This is only a courtesy short-term conversion tool-set for people switching from Word to Writer, only useful until you understand the founding principles of Writer. Writer is based on styles which allow you to control much more finely your document appearance than direct format. Tuning is done from a single point: style customisation instead of tracking occurrences and this guarantees consistency all over the style.


With comprehensive styling, you can even throw away nearly all toolbars, just keeping the main menu bar for interaction with the OS.


I fear there is presently no solution to enlarge the icons in Tabbed UI. So the cure to your problem is either to revert back to Standard UI or learn how to use styles.

#3

Thanks for taking the time, but really your suggestions and the way you expect people to adjust to LibreOffice seems a bit far from the real world to me.
Why would people even think of changing a UI that has worked for them? The goal of most people creating a document… not adjusting to a UI, especially if you already have a familiar one.

Having settings that only apply to some types of toolbars but not others… Why?

Having an initial wizard that allows you to choose your toolbar type, but then having to discover in a forum some basic settings (icon size) won’t work for your personal preference… :frowning:
If it is really meant for short term use, add that info in the wizard, “Cool you have a personal preference? Great, but remember to switch to the one the devs really prefer, because only then will you be allowed to get the maximum out of this suite”

Sorry, it just doesn’t make sense to me. What would make sense is if you would simply say the feature to change icon size isn’t fully developed yet and on the roadmap… perhaps we should add warnings in settings that don’t fully work yet → that I would totally understand.

#4

First, I am no developer, just a user like you, perhaps with a longer experience with Writer.

Writer is not Word. The underlying principles are different. A UI is only a means of interacting with the features. This heads you implicitly into such or such style of using the application, unfortunately masking optimal efficiency.

If you switch from nails to screws the application), will you still use a hammer (UI) to drive the screws?

The case is the same with computer applications. You must accept to relearn the basics in order to be efficient.

#5

In Windows 11, on LibreOffice 7.3.3.2 with icon size set to automatic, the icons change size when I change Windows scale from 125% to 100% and vice versa so it works here. LibreOffice tries to respect the operating system parameters and interface. It is better that all programs are scaled and styled alike so just one setting changes them all.

Maybe there is a bug in the way LibreOffice is handled in Manjaro. If you think there is a bug, you should report it. Check that the fault isn’t resolved by First steps to take before submitting a bug - The Document Foundation Wiki and then How to Report Bugs in LibreOffice - The Document Foundation Wiki

#6

This works for me in my LibreOffice 7.3.2.2 portable version on Windows 10. (There is not portable version for 7.3.3.2 version yet, therefore I can not try it with your LO version. I am using the LO 6.1.6.3 version installed permanently.)

There is only one exception: when the selected iconset (for example the old Galaxy icon set, installed from the extension site) has not very large sized images, then will be appeared substitutional icon shapes instead of the Galaxy icons.

#7

So, that is too small display for a 50+ aged human. We are using used (second hand) displays for our job with size 22", 27" at our small Ltd. Our collegues (and me too) are mostly aged 50+ with glasses. It was not enough to enlarge the icons on these small displays, because the icon largening will decrease the size of the working area in the Calc, Writer and for non-LO related applications…

#8

Actually it can work fine. Scaling set to 125% systemwide makes it plenty readable for my 70 year old parents that often do not like sitting on a desk with monitor. Unfortunately this scaling does not seem to apply to LO icons.

Just for comparison (not to promote in any way) install OnlyOffice DesktopEditors, it only has a handful of configuration options, one of them is Scaling. Set it to 125% and notice the icons are perfectly sized, perhaps just a tad too big but not eating up much space. Which isn’t an issue with the screen I am describing since you still see everything.

Offtopic:
The issue of monitor you describe is also typical for when you use something targeted for playback of videos to work on documents. 16:9 makes no sense if you want to use it for documents a lot.
With a 16:10 screen like 1920*1280 on 14" you would be surprised how much bigger it appears to be than the typical 16:9 resolution on that screensize. Especially when working with documents.
And with no system UI elements top or bottom, you have lots of space in height, more overview and scroll less. (like you, I prefer max working area, screens are wide, not tall so I’ve put Panel or Dock always vertical.)

#9

I think you are missing the point by miles. Nobody cares about it. People want to create documents. That’s it. They really do not care whether they are working in Word, Writer, OnlyOffice, WPS. You probably cannot imagine the following: most people do not even know these are different applications. They get a computer and use it to complete a task. That’s it.
The 2% niche that does understand the differences might care to investigate. And still come to the conclusion when changing Small to Extra Large, and nothing happens, something is wrong.
And it doesn’t matter if they did that in Word or Writer.

So no, you think they must adjust. But they won’t. They don’t even realize what you are talking about.

Back on topic:
Just to compare, when I select text, change font size 2 points higher and it stays the same size, why discuss about the underlying nature of the program? It’s just clear something is added to a UI but does not have any effect and therefore something is definitely wrong. Not as intended, why else add that option.
In this case, the issue is with LO and the option to change icon size.

The fact it works on one OS and not the other already confirms this is a bug. Btw.

#10

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=101646

#11

Re: tdf#101646 - though that answers the “Why is there no UI scaling option in LibreOffice”, it is unrelated to both View|Icon Size ignored in tabbed UI, and the system display scaling ignored on some systems (both of which are indeed own bugs).

@zilexa: I do not see a point arguing here if something a bug or not, or if people should align or not: the opinions expressed here on Ask LibreOffice are always personal opinions. The proper way to discuss that is in bug reports.

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