Fixing that Tiny Text in the Information Window (A Guide Comparison)

So, I know that I'm not the only one that's noticed that with the increased size of monitors and the better resolution (not to mention age and other factors) that text in the mission information and other windows is just too darned tiny to read!!!!!

Sadly, right now, there still doesn't seem to be any way to increase just the font size for individual windows (like that information window- which we still can't adjust at all). So, since I haven't found any major mention of it here in the forms right now (just buried in the comments of individuals here and there for other topics), I thought I'd put this up in case someone might find this useful as well as to invite any one else's input as to how they've handled the problem.

After all, no one's going to find any solutions to it unless we start talking and comparing notes so I'm kicking off that discussion.

Firstly, if you've found any other solution that works for you, please post what you did because that's the reason I'm putting this into the Guides section. It's because there's always more than one way to solve a problem and this is probably the first place anyone looking for that information is going to work. After all, what works for you will probably just as well for someone else or give them an idea as to how to solve it better- that's why we have these guides in the first place, innit?  ;)

So give us your guide! What'd you do?

To start, the old window scaling guide can be located here: https://cityofheroes.fandom.com/wiki/Window_Scale_Guide

But, for the record, here's mine:

Some of the old guide either doesn't work the same as it used to or never quite worked in an intuitive manner so, here's what I did.

1) So, the health bar/main GUI still sets everything. This means that we have to change that first and foremost to a size that I could read the font comfortably- I put it at 1.25 (you can also use the GUI settings slide bar under Menu Options too) but I would suggest playing around with it while you have a conversation with a contact open so you can find a size that's comfortable.

2) I increased the font size for Chat through the Options menu.

3) I de-docked the Contact window from Navigation and Powers List from the Power Tray. (Do not re-dock those windows or they will go to the smaller size again!) You can de-dock them by clicking on that itty bitty, teeny tiny, little button in the opposite corner of the close button (other side of the sub-windows list across either the top or the bottom of the window).

4) I resized window scale for Navigation, Chat Window, and Power tray back to 1.00 with the individual commands. (Actually, I even reduced it a little to .75 because I don't use the countdown but that's just me)

5) I went into Menu Options and Saved Preferences to File.

CAVEAT!!!! All floating trays seem to still be at the larger size no matter what I do. Despite what the old guide says, the scaling command for the floating tray does not seem to work anymore. This kinda sucks but, for me? I just use the one tray for powers I don't use very often so I can just close it when I'm not using the power that's in it and go and get that power if I need it for a specific mission. It's not ideal but... it'll work for now I guess. Also what sucks is that you have to keep that darned health bar at the huge size but again, I guess I can live with it if I have to.

So, has anyone else come up with some other way or setting that they've been able to change that helps? If so, what'd you do? Let's see your Guide to Fixing the Tiny Text!

:)

I worked for a long time on binds etc. that would custom-scale all the windows. Ran into bind and macro string length limits and other maintenance hassles.

So... I now set the scale in options to whatever is most convenient, around 1.25, then /windowscale everything I want showing and position it... and use /windowsave. Actually, /windowsavefile with an alt-specific file name so that, say, my tank doesn't have to have a Pet window, or my solo blaster a team window, etc.

I haven't looked at the wiki page or other things since these are largely out of date, but an exhaustive and verified list of window names is in the Guide.

Set it all up, tweak it, and save it. Messed up? Reload. (Binds help here.) Make a change? Resave it. Share with a new alt? Use the general save/reload as a starting point. Voilá.

Oh... /optionsave and /chatsave help save details that /windowsave doesn't. Repeat as above.

Oh... /optionsave and /chatsave help save details that /windowsave doesn't. Repeat as above.

Try /wdwsave  :)

Try /wdwsave  :)

Wy? Z Tht mr cmpct r smthin?  :o

Relatedly, has anyone found a font replacement they like that works better on higher resolution monitors?  I find the block-i-ness of the default font makes it a lot harder to read at higher resolutions, even if you increase the Font size.  But I haven't had time to play with replacing all the fonts with something skinnier.

I saw a passing comment in Help that you can replace a font file somewhere in the game folder tree. No details.

There is a fonts.pigg.

Try /wdwsave  :)

Wy? Z Tht mr cmpct r smthin?  :o

Sorry :) misread that as /windowsave doesn't work.

Wy? Z Tht mr cmpct r smthin?  :o

 

Sorry :) misread that as /windowsave doesn't work.

I know, my mistype. The correction was useful, thanks.

Information on changing fonts is at:

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,5157.msg40055.html#msg40055

Edit: This is for the font face, not font size. Still need the other changes outlined above for sizing.

I play on a TV and I've settled on Source Sans Pro from the Google Fonts. It is available under the Open Font License.

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Source+Sans+Pro?selection.family=Source+Sans+Pro

I just found the link with the full details on substituting fonts so haven't played with all the options yet. I used SourceSansPro-Bold.ttf for mont_demibold.ttf, and SourceSansPro-Black.ttf for mont_hvbold.ttf. Those were the only substitutions I was sure of before, but they cover a big portion of the text in the game.

I wanted something that was easier to read but still true to the spirit of the original font in weight and style. Another big factor for me was improving the distinction between commonly confused characters such as iI lL and oO0. I tinker around a lot with slash commands, binds, and macros and wanted to make it easier to spot typos!

So far this has worked out and I've been happy with the readability. I wish the spacing was a little better. It's not horrible but it could be better to my critical eye.

Now that I know the other font names to try substitutions I'll keep playing around to see if I can find the "perfect" combo for my eye!

I play on a TV and I've settled on Source Sans Pro from the Google Fonts. It is available under the Open Font License.

 

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Source+Sans+Pro?selection.family=Source+Sans+Pro

How do you DL this as a font file? I must not be familiar with that site or just another case of blurry-eyes.

How do you DL this as a font file? I must not be familiar with that site or just another case of blurry-eyes.

At the top of the page click the Select This Font link.

At the bottom of the window a panel is added stating 1 Family Selected. Click the panel to expand it, then click the download arrow to the top-right corner of the panel.

I've also read a lot of the Window Size/Font Size forums, but never heard this question....

Is there a way to make the red Damage/ green Heal numbers that float by when fighting any bigger? I love to see what I'm doing or what is being done to me :)

In print, you’d use tiny font sizes for copyright pages and the like—information that needs to be there but that isn’t particularly important for people to read easily. (It shouldn’t ever be set so tiny as to be illegible, however. If there’s too much to fit on one page legibly, request a rewrite.) For web/screens you could use smallER font sizes for less important information, but never extremely tiny sizes, because you aren’t going to pay more to print make all text tiny here extra pages as you aren’t printing ANY pages, and it is already harder on the eyes to read on (backlit) screens than on paper. If you just can’t bear to have such information cluttering up your design, better to incorporate a link to a separate page.

I don't know if it helps, but if you want contact and mission dialogue to be bigger, you can use /window_scale Status 1.99 and it will put those to maximum. This may also increase the size of the health bar though.

On 6/23/2019 at 2:45 AM, Dallayna said:

CAVEAT!!!! All floating trays seem to still be at the larger size no matter what I do. Despite what the old guide says, the scaling command for the floating tray does not seem to work anymore. This kinda sucks but, for me? I just use the one tray for powers I don't use very often so I can just close it when I'm not using the power that's in it and go and get that power if I need it for a specific mission. It's not ideal but... it'll work for now I guess. Also what sucks is that you have to keep that darned health bar at the huge size but again, I guess I can live with it if I have to.

@Dallayna, I did manage to get my floating trays the same smaller scale as my other trays. https://imgur.com/a/kgTOycz

I'm not 100% sure how I did, so I saved to default settings, and looked at the wdw.txt file. (copy here - https://pastebin.com/G7bnRXSv) so you can look at the settings listed.

The only thing that stood out was 'razertray' which I also didn't see mention in the paragonwiki list of windows. It may need to be copy and pasted into the wdw file then loaded rather than using the command /windowscale. I haven't had much success replicating changing the floating tray size which maybe because I need to play in safe mode (after the HiRes GUI update) but you might pick up what I missed and it's not razertray at all.

On 6/22/2019 at 1:15 PM, Dallayna said:

CAVEAT!!!! All floating trays seem to still be at the larger size no matter what I do. Despite what the old guide says, the scaling command for the floating tray does not seem to work anymore. This kinda sucks but, for me? I just use the one tray for powers I don't use very often so I can just close it when I'm not using the power that's in it and go and get that power if I need it for a specific mission. It's not ideal but... it'll work for now I guess. Also what sucks is that you have to keep that darned health bar at the huge size but again, I guess I can live with it if I have to.

Did you ever get this to work for you? I have no problem making the floating trays go up or down using the /windowscale command

trays 1,2 and 3, are just tray

tray 4 is tray1

tray 5 is tray2

up to tray 9 being tray6

so /windowscale tray6 3.00 makes tray 9 huge and then /windowscale tray6 0.75 brings it to the size you said you were using

did i misunderstand your issue? or miss the solution in the thread? 

same thing with the heath window ... is /windowscale health 1.00 not an option for some reason?