[SOLVED] Big UI elements on dwm

AnarchistCommunist · 2025-08-19 02:31:57

I switched to dwm from a desktop environment. The UI elements of GUI applications - toolbars, sidebars, drop-down menus, tool-tips - are something like 50% bigger than they used to be, bigger than what I would like them. Fonts in these elements scale with them. Some rather densely-packed things - like Thunderbird - become significantly less usable.
Webpages, top bar, the terminal emulator, and everywhere else where font size is specified, has the proper size.
Some example images:
browser
gimp
nemo
Thunderbird with listed messages that used to consume only half the screen on the vertical direction and now no longer fits
fastfetch info

---------
OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Host: HP 180
Kernel: Linux 6.16.0-arch2-1
Uptime: 1 hour, 40 mins
Packages: 850 (pacman)
Shell: bash 5.3.3
Display (HDMI-1): 1920x1080 @ 60 Hz in 27" [External]
WM: dwm (X11)
Cursor: Adwaita
Terminal: kitty 0.42.2
Terminal Font: Adwaita-Mono (12pt)
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) J2900 (4) @ 2.67 GHz
GPU: Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display @ 0.90 GHz [Integrated]
Memory: 2.70 GiB / 3.70 GiB (73%)
Swap: 429.80 MiB / 4.00 GiB (10%)
Disk (/): 24.55 GiB / 228.75 GiB (11%) - ext4
Disk (/boot/EFI): 164.00 KiB / 1021.98 MiB (0%) - vfat
Local IP (enp2s0): 192.168.1.23/24
Locale: en_US.UTF-8

Output of

xdpyinfo | grep -B 2 resolution

is

screen #0:
  dimensions:    1920x1080 pixels (508x285 millimeters)
  resolution:    96x96 dots per inch

Let me know if I may add normal-sized screenshots for comparison, or other information.

Last edited by AnarchistCommunist (2025-08-19 11:43:51)

seth · 2025-08-19 07:45:56

Please replace the oversized images w/ links "big" is relative anyway.
This has absolutely nothign to do w/ your WM, but you're apparently running FullHD on a 27" output (is that correct??) ie. 81.59 DPI at the default 96DPI what will overscale everything by ~17.66%

xrandr -q

Run "xrandr --dpi 80" in your init script or use the server parameter, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#D … ze_and_DPI

AnarchistCommunist · 2025-08-19 11:38:28

I found the problem. It was nothing but a gtk config.
In /usr/share/gtk-3.0/settings.ini, the font is 22.2% larger than ideal.
Sorry to bother everyone on the forum. Should have found it in the wiki earlier.

seth · 2025-08-19 13:24:02

Is that the old or the new file?
9pt isn't "larger than ideal" but a very sane value. 7pt is pretty small and as mentioned, your logical DPI is off by ~20% from the physical, so you might wanna fix that?

AnarchistCommunist · 2025-08-20 05:13:30

It would seem that I have uploaded the edited file.
After editing, the problem is resolved.
DPI does not seem to be a problem. Things look quite good with 96x96 dpi and 9pt.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-08-19 02:31:57

[SOLVED] Big UI elements on dwm

#2 2025-08-19 07:45:56

Re: [SOLVED] Big UI elements on dwm

#3 2025-08-19 11:38:28

Re: [SOLVED] Big UI elements on dwm

#4 2025-08-19 13:24:02

Re: [SOLVED] Big UI elements on dwm

#5 2025-08-20 05:13:30

Re: [SOLVED] Big UI elements on dwm

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